Kamto launches online petition against amended Constitution.

The petition is titled: “No to the Constitutional and institutional coup in Cameroon; perpetrated by the CPDM regime”.

According to Kamto, by signing the petition online, every participant is working to strengthen “a peaceful citizen movement for change”.

As at the early hours of Tuesday, over 45,500 persons had signed the petition. Notes attached to the online petition claim that: “Cameroonians reject the Constitutional and institutional coup, carried out during the Parliamentary session of March 2026”.

Endorsing the petition, the Kamto-led initiative stated, is another way of saying “no to the Constitutional revision establishing a negotiated Presidential succession, through the creation of the post of Vice President of the Republic”.

The changes, giving the appointed Vice President powers of succession in the event of vacancy at the helm of State, the petition stated, violates Article 64 of the Constitution.

Additionally, the petition, the note accompanying it stated, is against the repeated extension of the mandates of Members of Parliament and municipal councillors.

The petition accused the powers that be of manipulating electoral laws in force.  By singing the petition, the explanation attached to it declared that: “We demand compliance to the constitution, the fundamental law of our country and respect for the sovereignty of the Cameroonian people as expressed through elections”.

As at the time only 8,000 plus persons had signed the petition, the site hosting it was reportedly hacked. Kamto issued a statement indicating that technical teams were working to restore it to guarantee privacy.

The petition gives room for identification and location of whoever is signing it. Before launching the petition, Kamto had on Friday, April 3, 2026, condemned the amendment.

Yet, the Congress of Parliament overwhelmingly voted the bill, reintroducing the post of Vice President.

He had in his reaction before the adoption, accused the Head of State, Paul Biya, of trampling upon the Constitution and showing contempt for citizens.

Kamto wrote that Biya and his Cameroon People’s Democratic Movement, CPDM, party have the DNA of a one-party system.

The MRC leader noted that the opposition has done more than enough in decades past but the regime in place continues to survive through a complexes fraudulent system.

He had also accused the regime in place of “having a paralysing fear for elections”. To Kamto, it is such fear “that gives rise to the idea of transferring power through backroom ideals”.

Mockery over petition

Albeit the thousands who are endorsing the petition, Kamto has come under heavy criticism for the step.

Critics are quarrelling him for seeking citizen support in such a drive, bashing him for not supporting similar moves when the country’s Constitution was amended in 2008 to remove Presidential term limits.

Those who disagree with his present move say Kamto stayed quiet while in government then because he was feeding from the same regime. 

To this group of persons, his ongoing petition won’t change anything in the country’s political landscape. 

This article was first published in The Guardian Post Edition No:3754 of Wednesday April 08, 2026