Cameroon suspends Issa Tchiroma’s party for three months ahead of 2027 local and legislative polls

DAKAR — Cameroon’s government has suspended the National Salvation Front of Cameroon (FSNC), the party of opposition leader Issa Tchiroma Bakary, from all activity nationwide for three months. The order was signed on Tuesday by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Paul Atanga Nji, and published in the state daily Cameroon Tribune.

Tchiroma, a former government minister, claimed victory in the October 2025 presidential election, which official results awarded to President Paul Biya. According to RFI’s correspondent in Yaoundé, the order lists five grounds for the suspension, including calls for insurrection, attacks on territorial integrity, national unity and sovereignty, and incitement to violence that caused damage to property and serious public disorder, all attributed to the party before, during and after last year’s vote. It also cites as an aggravating factor that the party president lives abroad. Tchiroma is in the Gambia, RFI says.

Opposition reaction

The lawyer Alice Nkom, who had been named spokesperson for Tchiroma’s campaign, told RFI the decision was “un signe de fin de règne atroce” (a sign of an atrocious end of reign) and asked: “De quoi ont-ils peur ?” (What are they afraid of?). At the time of RFI’s report neither Tchiroma, his party nor the ruling Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement had reacted officially.

Other opposition parties have condemned the move. Africanews reports that MANIDEM called it an “unjust” measure and a “blatant manoeuvre”, the Front for Change in Cameroon said it threatened a fair electoral contest, and the Democratic Union of Cameroon called for elections that are as inclusive as possible.

Before the 2027 vote

The suspension comes as the electorate is due to be summoned for legislative and municipal elections scheduled for early 2027, in a political climate that has stayed tense since the presidential election. A three-month suspension from 27 October would run to late January.

AB24’s reading: the order is time-limited, but it removes the party of the main challenger in the 2025 presidential election from public activity in the run-up to the 2027 polls. Whether the FSNC challenges the order in court, and whether it is renewed, will shape how competitive those elections can be. The move follows a week in which rights groups have raised concern about press and political freedom elsewhere on the continent, including in Niger and Tanzania.

Sources: RFI, 28 Oct 2026; Africanews, 29 Oct 2026; Cameroon Tribune, Order No.000163 of 27 Oct 2026.

— AB24 · Dakar