France, Nov. 11 -- "See you on February 7," read the headline of the state-owned Cameroon Tribune on Tuesday, a day after a decree from 93-year-old President Paul Biya announced the date for the polls.

The elections, which have been postponed twice, will be the first nationwide vote since Biya was declared the winner of the contested presidential election in October 2025, which handed him an eighth term after more than four decades in power.

The settling of the date was met with enthusiasm on the streets of the capital Yaounde.

"We want a renewal of the political class and, really, young people in power," Nkopipie Kodjo, head of an association, told AFP.

"We're in a country where it feels like the political class is a bit has-been, it...