In his traditional end of year and new year message, Paul Biya made a timely announcement. “The senatorial elections to be held in 2023 will be an opportunity to consolidate the option of decentralisation that we have taken, by renewing the Upper House of our Parliament, which represents the decentralised territorial communities,” the Head of State said.

These elections will be the third of its kind. They come at the end of the mandate of the senators of the second legislature which began following the elections of 25 March 2018. Of the 70 senators elected in this election by the electors who were the municipal councillors, the CPDM won 63. The other seven seats were won by a single opposition party, the Social Democratic Front (SDF).

The first ever senatorial elections took place on 14 April 2013. The electorate of 9,785 municipal councillors elected 56 CPDM candidates and 14 SDF candidates. The difference of seven elected members for the SDF in 2018 is due to the security crisis in the North West and South West regions, which are the party’s base.

In 2023, the electorate expands with the entry of 870 living regional councillors (out of the 900) following the elections of 6 December 2020. These will be added to the 10,600 municipal councillors to form a file of over 11,000 voters who will make their choice around March and April.