(Photo by Jean Pierre Kepseu/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Cameroon’s veteran leader Paul Biya on Monday announced the country’s first regional elections in December, including in two western regions in the grip of a revolt by the anglophone minority.
The elections on December 6 in the country’s 10 regions will put in place councils provided for in a 1996 constitution in a move towards decentralization but not yet implemented.
These councils will also be elected in the two western regions where a nearly three-year-old insurgency has claimed over 3,000 lives.
The regions will elect 90 councillors, who will have limited powers on local issues. Twenty of them will be representatives of traditional chieftains.
The country’s main opposition leader, Maurice Kamto, has vowed to organize protest against the regional elections if the separatist conflict is not solved before the elections take place
