Ministry Details
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President

Paul Biya (1982/1997) RDPC

Veteran leader Paul Biya won a new seven-year term in presidential elections in October 2004, with more than 70% of the vote. Commonwealth observers accepted the result, but said the poll lacked credibility in key areas. Opposition parties alleged widespread fraud.

Mr Biya won multi-party polls in 1992 and 1997. The latter were boycotted by the three main opposition parties.

Before becoming president, Mr Biya spent his entire political career in the service of President Ahmadou Ahidjo, becoming prime minister in 1975.

With Mr Ahidjo's resignation in 1982 he assumed the leadership and set about replacing his predecessor's northern allies with fellow southerners.

In 1983 he accused Mr Ahidjo of organising a coup against him, forcing the former president to flee the country.

Born in 1933, Paul Biya was educated in Cameroon and France, where he studied law at the Sorbonne.

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Goverment Ministers

Click here for a complete list of government ministers.

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Parliament

The Assemblée Nationale/National Assembly has 180 members, elected for a five year term in 49 single and multi-seat constituencies.

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Political Parties

- Liberty Movement of the Cameroon Youth Mouvement pour la Défense de la République (Movement for the Defence of the Republic)
- Rassemblement démocratique du Peuple Camerounais/Cameroon - People's Democratic Movement (conservative)
- Social-Democratic Front/Front Social-Démocratique (social-democratic)
- Union Démocratique du Cameroun (Democratic Union of Cameroon, oppositional)
- Union des Populations du Cameroun (Union of the Peoples of Cameroon)
- Union Nationale pour la Démocratie et le Progrès (National Union for Democracy and Progress, moderate islamist)

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