Benin - 2021 - Presidential Election
The March 2016 election chose a successor to President Thomas Boni Yayi, who was stepping down after two terms, leaving 33 candidates to compete for power in the West African country. Boni Yayi is leaving office after the legally mandated two terms, reinforcing Benin's reputation as a model of democracy on the troubled continent, where many leaders are revising their countries' constitution so they can remain in power.
Newly-elected Benin president Patrice Talon planned to reduce presidential mandates to just one five-year term, he said 26 March 2016 after the constitutional court confirmed his election victory over prime minister Lionel Zinsou. Talon took 65.4 percent of the vote in last Sunday’s run-off poll to decide who would replace President Thomas Boni Yayi, who is stepping down after serving two terms in office, the constitutional court said on Friday. The figures confirmed results that came out earlier in the week.
“I will first and foremost tackle constitutional reform,” Talon told reporters, reinforcing a promise made during campaigning. One term of five years would reduce presidential “complacency”, he said. Benin presidents can currently serve two five-year terms. The peaceful election was seen as reinforcing the democratic credentials of Benin, a bastion of stability in a region where elections are often marred by violence.
In Benin, to be a presidential candidate, it will be necessary to pay a deposit of 250 million CFA francs (about 380,000 euros), according to a proposal to reform the electoral code within three years of the presidential election. Two hundred and fifty million CFA francs (about 380,000 euros): this is the bond that will have to be paid by the candidates for the next presidential election in Benin, set in 2021. This is what the new reform of the electoral code adopted, 07 August 2018, by the National Assembly's National Assembly's Law Commission dominated by the ruling coalition. Until then, only 10,000 euros were required to run in a presidential election.
This new code had yet to be adopted in plenary by MEPs, but it is already provoking fierce controversy in public opinion and on social networks. The purpose of this new provision is to limit the number of applications in a country with nearly 150 political parties. According to Orden Alladatin, rapporteur of the commission of laws, close to power, this new electoral code aims to promote the consolidation of political forces. "You have to be able to contain the bunch of whimsical applications that have always been known in the past. We need to have strong parties and not individuals and strong men, "he said Thursday, on a Benin private television channel.
In the 2016 presidential election that ended with the victory in the second round of businessman Patrice Talon, 33 candidates ran for the highest office. A record number of candidates in the country's political history. But according to observers, this provision will result in the exclusion of citizens and create "a Republic of the rich". "The power believes that by raising the amount of bonds, it will prevent the multiplication of applications. It's a selection by money.
Benin President Patrice Talon and only two other candidates will run in the country's presidential election in April, electoral authorities said 12 February 2021. A total of 20 would-be candidates officially handed in their documents to run for the presidency, but the electoral commission said only the three chosen had met the necessary requirements. Many opposition figures were already in exile or barred from office in Benin, a West African state which critics say under Talon had veered into authoritarianism. Talon, a cotton magnate in power since 2016, will face former minister Alassane Soumano for the opposition FCBE party and Corentin Kohoue, a dissident opposition figure. The opposition says the ballot is already fixed in favour of Talon, especially because of an electoral law reform requiring each candidate to be formally sponsored by 16 mayors or members of parliament.
Benin has for the past three decades stood out as a model democracy in a region beset by coups and insurgencies. As he sought a second term in a presidential election, its tycoon leader Patrice Talon faced accusations he had tarnished the country’s reputation as a vibrant multiparty democracy. Talon, a multi-millionaire known as the “King of Cotton”, lookrf all but certain to win re-election in a contest critics say is heavily tilted in his favour. He facef two little-known rivals, Alassane Soumanou and Corentin Kohoue, with most opposition leaders either living in exile or disqualified from running.
The lack of a contest signalrf a stark reversal after three decades of competitive elections in the coastal nation of 11.5 million, a former French colony hemmed in between tiny Togo and Africa’s powerhouse, Nigeria. It follows the introduction of controversial reforms that analysts have described as “a master class in entrenching autocracy”.
The result haf been an unusually tense run-up to the vote, with troops deployed in several opposition strongholds this week to disperse violent protests. On 09 April 2021, officials said two people were killed in the central city of Save as troops fired tear gas and live rounds in the air to disperse protesters.
“Patrice Talon was meant to finish his term on April 5. But he failed to organise elections in time, as required by the constitution,” said Kamar Ouassagari, a senior member of the opposition party Les Démocrates, in an interview with FRANCE 24. “So the people of Benin have risen up to tell him his time is up,” Ouassagari added.
A poor country that is heavily reliant on cotton exports and informal trade with neighbouring Nigeria, Benin has a proud record as a beacon of democracy. Following the introduction of a multi-party system in 1991, its longtime leader Mathieu Kérékou became the first West African president to accept defeat at the polls. Talon’s predecessor, two-term president Thomas Boni Yayi, agreed to step down in 2016 even as neighboring rulers changed their constitutions to extend their rule. Talon himself appeared willing to go a step further, pledging as a candidate that year to forgo a second term in order to avoid "complacency".
But critics say his deeds once in office have largely undermined the country’s democratic progress. Opponents are especially critical of a reform of the country’s electoral laws requiring presidential candidates to secure the signatures of at least 16 elected officials in order to run. The rule was ostensibly designed to prevent the proliferation of mini-parties and fanciful candidacies. But in a country where all 83 members of parliament and 71 out of 77 mayors belong to Talon’s camp, securing those precious endorsements has proved largely impossible.
The incumbent’s stranglehold on power results from disputed parliamentary elections held in 2019, in which the principal opposition parties were barred from running. Those polls led to a dismal 27 percent turnout – an unprecedented low in a country that had seen turnout near 75 percent in the 1990s. The disputed parliamentary elections triggered angry protests and several people were killed when the army opened fire on demonstrators. Many fear a similar outbreak of violence following Sunday’s presidential vote.
“Benin will be at high risk in the coming days,” warns Francis Kpatindé, a French-Beninese journalist and researcher at Sciences-Po Paris, stressing that “such political violence is a novelty” in a once stable country that had grown accustomed to peaceful transfers of power. “Benin used to score well in global rankings published by the likes of Amnesty International and Reporters Without Border,” he says. “But over the past five years we’ve seen it slide down the tables when it comes to human rights and respecting democratic institutions.”
Amnesty International registered at least 12 cases of political opponents being either arrested, sentenced or summoned by the authorities since the start of the 2021. “Most of these arrests are based on laws that appear designed to curtail freedom of expression and the ability to voice criticism [of the authorities],” says regional expert Fabien Offner, who works for Amnesty’s Dakar bureau, in Senegal. He points to a digital law, passed in 2019, “which has been used to detain people based on messages posted on WhatsApp”. Offner adds: “The result is that Benin is heading into an election with most opposition leaders either in exile or in detention based on legal cases that are often very vague.”
Sébastien Ajavon, a business leader who backed Talon in the 2016 run-off after coming third in the election, fled to France before his sentencing on drug-trafficking charges, which he denies. Ganiou Soglo, another prominent opponent, survived an attempted assassination earlier this year, shortly after declaring his candidacy. As for Lionel Zinsou, the runner-up five years ago, he is serving a five-year ban from elected office for exceeding spending limits in the 2016 campaign. In March 2021, the authorities jailed another would-be candidate, former justice minister Reckya Madougou, this time on charges of supporting terrorism. According to a judge who fled Benin earlier this month, the charges against Madougou were politically motivated.
“There was nothing in the case that would have justified her arrest,” judge Essowé told FRANCE 24’s sister radio RFI on Monday, speaking from an undisclosed location. “It’s not the first time,” he added. “There have been several such cases where we received instructions from above.” The government dismissed the accusations as “political manipulation”, accusing exiled opponents of trying to have the election annulled. Benin is fast resembling “the prototype of an authoritarian regime that tolerates no contradiction,” says Kpatindé. “Talon wants to develop the country’s economy and overhaul its infrastructure. He believes he’s invested with an almost Messianic mission at the country’s helm – and he accepts no checks on his power.”
Five years earlier, Benin’s “King of Cotton” banked on his business credentials and his image as a moderniser to secure a convincing win at the polls. He has played up his economic successes during this campaign, with improved road, water and energy supplies. Economic growth notched up one point to a solid 5.5 percent in the first years of his term. According to the African Development Bank, Benin’s economy continued to grow last year despite the global recession, making it one of the few countries in the world not to post negative figures amid the coronavirus pandemic. However, analysts say the resilient growth has done little to improve the lot of a population still largely reliant on the informal economy.
Some observers had drawn parallels between Talon’s Benin and Rwanda under President Paul Kagame, who has been credited with implementing sweeping structural reforms while also stifling dissent. Talon’s critics also denounce his grip on the nation’s economy. The 62-year-old magnate is the richest man in a country where cotton accounts for a staggering 80 percent of exports. The concentration of power in the hands of Benin’s incumbent president is cause for alarm, says Kpatindé, warning that Talon’s clean sweep of parliament could allow him to “prolong his rule indefinitely, without needing a referendum” to bypass constitutional term limits.
The health of Beninese democracy is of particular concern at a time when jihadist insurgencies threaten to spill over into coastal countries south of the restive Sahel region, Kpatindé warns. “If you don’t have national unity, and a stable and peaceful democratic framework, then the door is open to all sorts of enterprises,” he says. In May 2019, gunmen kidnapped two French tourists and killed their guide in the Pendjari national park, near the country’s northwestern border with Burkina Faso. Though rare, the incident served as an ominous reminder that Benin is not immune from the jihadist menace wreaking havoc across large swathes of West Africa.
Benin’s electoral commission has declared incumbent Patrice Talon the winner of the country’s presidential election with 86 percent of the votes in the first round of a ballot boycotted by some opposition parties. His opponents, Alassane Soumanou and Corentin Kohoue, got 11.29 and 2.25 percent respectively, according to provisional results announced by the commission on 13 April 2021. Turnout was about 50.17 percent.
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