YAOUNDE: Cameroon holds its first ever regional election on Sunday, which the government says hands more power to the provinces but opponents fear only maintains President Paul Biya’s long hold on power.
Biya hopes the vote will appease critics who say he has long neglected the Central African country’s 10 regions, and end a four-year separatist insurgency in the English-speaking west which has become the greatest threat to his near 40-year rule.
Separatist fighters have vowed to disrupt the vote in the Northwest and Southwest regions.
Local representatives will vote to appoint councils in all 10 regions made up of regional delegates and traditional rulers, putting into action a 1996 law that promised decentralised government but was never enacted.
The councils will have a say over development, including infrastructure such as roads, but they will not be able to alter laws enacted by the national assembly and the senate in Yaounde.
Opponents say the vote offers only the…