The Beninese opposition returns to the polls after three years of absence in the legislative elections to be held this Sunday and understood as a rehearsal for the 2026 general elections in which the current president and undisputed leader of the country, Patrice Talon, must leave power after completing his two five-year constitutional mandates.
More than 6.5 million voters will be able to vote in elections where representatives of seven political parties — four from the presidential movement, three from the opposition — are running for the 109 seats in the National Assembly in the country’s 24 constituencies under the watchful eye of a mission of 40 observers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) headed by the former president of the Republic of Guinea-Bissau Raimundo Perreira.
Among the opposition formations, the Democrats party stands out above all, led by Talon’s predecessor and great rival, Thomas Boni Yayi, whose supporters staged strong protests in 2019 after learning of the prohibition to appear at these elections for failing to comply with strict criteria.
However, a successful subsequent appeal to the Constitutional Court allows the Democrats to become the seventh party to contest the elections where representatives of all parties will measure their strength to gauge who may be able to succeed Talon.
Until then, Talon will continue to completely dominate the country. It should be recalled that the president is keeping two of his major opponents, the former minister Reckya Madougou and the constitutionalist Joël Aïvo, imprisoned by order of a special anti-terrorist court, harshly criticized by the opposition as an instrument purely at the service of the president.
Talon and Boni Yayi have a tense relationship. In 2012, the then president accused Talon, a cotton magnate, of trying to have him poisoned, but the businessman denied the allegations. In 2016, Talon beat Boni Yayi’s preferred successor in the elections, in the face of the latter’s inability to run for another term after ten years in power.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Interior and Public Security , Alassane Séidou, has announced the total closure of businesses and the country’s borders during the voting day to facilitate the conduct of the polls, which will end at 20.00 local time, reports ‘La Nouvelle Tribune’.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
