A cotton tycoon first elected in 2016, Talon faced off against two little-known rivals while some of the West African country’s key opposition leaders boycotted the election.
Sitting between Africa’s powerhouse Nigeria and neighbouring Togo, Benin has seen some economic successes under Talon, who has played up his record while campaigning. He promised a “KO” first-round win. “The president has chosen to run against himself in this unprecedented election,” the FRD opposition movement said, adding that candidates had been “driven into exile, arrested, thrown in prison”.Voter turnout was low compared to with past elections, according to initial data collected by a group of civil society organisations that deployed 1,400 observers. Official turnout was not yet announced.
A civil society observation mission said that at midday polling stations in Tchaourou and Bante, strongholds of former President Thomas Boni Yayo, had not yet opened. The electoral commission’s president Emmanuel Tiando told AFP on Saturday that despite delays in sending electoral material to the north, there was “nothing preventing this election from taking place”.
“I went to vote because it is a civic duty, but also because I want the reforms to continue,” one voter said in Cotonou, asking not to be named. “The president built the roads and finally things change. You can’t make an omelet without breaking some eggs.”Following 17 years of military rule along Marxist-Leninist lines, the former French colony opened up into a multi-party democracy in 1990.
Is that not GovernorObaseki?
Nigeria Latest News, Nigeria Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.