Benin’s opposition loses all parliamentary seats, provisional results show | Elections News

Electoral commission says two parties aligned with President Patrice Talon win all 109 seats in the assembly.

President Patrice Talon’s ruling alliance has won full control of Benin’s National Assembly in legislative elections, according to provisional results.

The electoral commission said on Saturday night that of the five parties running in the January 11 vote, only the Progressive Union for Renewal and the Republican Bloc – both aligned with Talon – won seats in the assembly.

The Progressive Union for Renewal will have 60 MPs while the Republican Bloc will have 49.

According to a new electoral code, a party must obtain 20 percent of the national vote and 20 percent in each of the 24 electoral districts to be eligible for seat allocation.

The main opposition party, The Democrats, won about 16 percent of the vote and failed to reach the threshold.

The results strengthen the presidential bloc’s hand going into the presidential election in April, in which 67-year-old Talon, who has ruled the country for a decade, is barred from standing again by term limits.

His handpicked successor, Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, is expected to succeed him. The Democrats, meanwhile, are barred from standing in the presidential polls after failing to gather enough signatures to register.

The same rule sidelined them from local elections that were held alongside last week’s legislative polls.

“These results confirm the struggle that [The Democrats] party has been waging for about two years,” Guy Mitokpe, spokesperson for The Democrats, said, according to The Associated Press news agency.

“We denounced this electoral code, saying that it heavily favoured parties aligned with the president. It’s an exclusionary electoral code. As proof, we won’t have a candidate in the presidential election, and we were excluded from the municipal elections.”

Turnout in last weekend’s elections was 36.7 percent, officials said, roughly on par with the 37 percent in the last legislative polls in 2023.

The legislative vote took place weeks after a deadly military coup attempt to overthrow Talon, which lasted a few hours on December 7 before authorities announced it had been foiled.

Under a November constitutional reform, the presidential term was extended to seven years with a two-term limit.