Developing
The office of vice-president of the Republic remains empty. The constitutional revision promulgated on 14 April 2026 created the post, and under the Constitution as revised the president of the Republic appoints and dismisses the vice-president. No other body shares that power. No appointment has been made in the 203 days since promulgation.
The revision changed the succession rule without naming a successor. Where the presidency falls vacant, interim duties pass to the president of the Senate, who under the Constitution may not revise the Constitution, dissolve the National Assembly, organise a referendum or appoint members of the Constitutional Council. The Senate president is elected by the Senate, whose members are themselves elected by the regional councils. The revised text leaves the choice of a vice-president with the president alone, and until that choice is made the office stays vacant.
The vacancy has drawn public comment from several named actors. On 5 October 2026, 11 intellectuals, among them Achille Mbembe and Akere Muna, called in a tribune in Liberation for the competent authorities to declare the presidency vacant and open a constitutional transition. On 8 October 2026, Christian Ntimbane Bomo, executive president of Heritage, argued that a transition should rest on the recognition that Issa Tchiroma Bakary won the 12 October 2025 election, and that the Senate president's interim role excludes appointing a government. Gregoire Owona answered the same day that the Constitution does not recognise a de facto vacancy, that physical absence is not legal vacancy, and that the Republic has no dauphin. On 14 October 2026, Denis Emilien Atangana of the FDC called on President Paul Biya to name a vice-president, writing that the state of the head of state's health makes the appointment necessary.
The appointment is a single decision, and the Constitution gives it to the president. The date of that decision is not announced. The office stays empty until a decree names its holder, and the text of any such decree would be the first public record of who holds the post. The Senate's composition matters to what follows an appointment, because the Senate president is the interim head of state if the presidency falls vacant, and the Senate president is chosen by senators elected by the regional councils. The next step that would show movement on the question is a presidential decree appointing a vice-president. Until then the office remains vacant, and the succession rule set out in the revised Constitution applies as written.