Credited with over 94% of the votes, many of which were stuffed into ballot boxes even before polling hours, Benin’s Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, the successor of the outgoing president, Patrice Talon, was declared the winner of the presidential election.
In the absence of any serious opposition candidates – all of whom were imprisoned or barred from contesting – the result of this election held on April 12 was a foregone conclusion.
During his decade-long rule, President Talon has brought about a series of tactically-timed changes to the electoral rules, effectively allowing the ruling coalition to determine who can and cannot contest for the top post.
Electoral rules tweaked to exclude opposition
Soon after coming to power in the 2016 presidential election, Talon’s regime tweaked the electoral rules, ensuring that none of the opposition candidates could contest in the parliamentary election in April 2019.
The Progressive Union for Renewal (UPR) and the Republican Bloc (BR) – the main parties in the ruling coalition backing Talon, who contested as an independent – captured all the seats, eliminating parliamentary opposition.
To effectively use this absolute control over the parliament to secure Talon’s own presidency, his parliament adopted a new electoral code in November. Endorsements from at least 10% of the mayors and parliamentarians, 100% of whom were from the ruling coalition, were required under the new code for a presidential candidate to contest.
Ahead of the presidential election in April 2021, Talon’s parliament did not provide the needed endorsements to his main opponents, Joël Aïvo of the Front for the Restoration of Democracy (FRD) and Reckya Madougou from The Democrats.
It instead endorsed Alassane Soumanou, leader of a faction of the Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin (FCBE), which has been reduced to a shadow of its former self as the ruling party from 2006 to 2016. He secured less than 11.3% of the votes. The only other opposition candidate endorsed was an independent who secured only 2.35%.
Winning a second term with over 86% of the votes, Talon unleashed a crackdown on his serious opponents, who were barred from contesting.
The very next day after his re-election, Aïvo, a law professor, was arrested. Accused of plotting against the state and laundering money, he was sentenced to 10 years in December 2021. Only days later, Madougou, a former justice minister, was convicted on terror charges and sentenced to 20 years.
In the subsequent parliamentary election in early 2023, however, The Democrats made a breakthrough, securing 28 seats with 24.02% of the votes, above the 10% threshold required for parliamentary representation.
The ruling coalition, which retained 81 of the 109 seats, introduced further amendments to electoral laws in 2024, raising the minimum endorsement required by presidential candidates from parliamentarians and mayors from 10% to 15%. It also raised the threshold for parliamentary representation from 10% to 20% of the votes in all the constituencies.
In the aftermath of the failed coup
Winning just over 16%, The Democrats fell below the new threshold, losing all their seats in the parliamentary election held in January 2026, amid the repression in the aftermath of the coup attempt the previous month, thwarted by foreign military intervention.
Read more: Foreign troops restore France-backed Talon regime in Benin following coup attempt
Complaining about the violation of “fundamental liberties”, “arrests and imprisonment”, “intimidation”, and the barring of strong opposition candidates from contesting for the presidency, Beninese soldiers launched a coup in the early hours of December 7, 2025.
They also highlighted the “mismanagement of the agricultural sector”, the capture of “all vital sectors of the economy by a small minority” of elites, and taxes burdening “already poor populations”.
The statement by soldiers appearing on the state television that morning further raised concerns over the “continued deterioration of the security” in the north.
Earlier, in January 2025, hundreds of insurgents affiliated with Al Qaeda overran one of the strongest military installations in the northern region. Over 30 soldiers fell in the eight-hour-long battle with no reinforcements.
Trade unions, student, and youth organizations held demonstrations, paying tribute to the slain soldiers. Noting that terror attacks have become a recurring event since the French troops expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger were redeployed in Benin, the protesters also demanded their expulsion.
Read more: The people of Benin intensify anti-French protests in the wake of a terror attack
Philippe Noudjenoume, first secretary of the Communist Party of Benin (PCB), which played a key role in these protests, maintains that France has been orchestrating terror attacks to “weaken and destabilize” its former colonies.
The purpose, he argues, is to get these governments “to accept the presence of French military forces” on their territories as a form of protection. The terror group struck again in April, killing over 50 more soldiers.
The families of the soldiers “who fell on the frontlines in action” are being neglected and “left to fend for themselves”, decried the soldiers announcing the coup on television.
“There was great joy throughout the country when the coup was announced”, Noudjenoume had told Peoples Dispatch at the time, adding that “almost all military garrisons” had approved the coup.
Several clips shared on social media also showed groups of people coming out to the streets to celebrate the coup. However, there was little time for mass mobilizations because foreign intervention by multiple militaries came quickly by noon.
Having already lost the regimes it had propped up in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger to military coups backed by mass mobilizations, France was quick to respond soon after the coup started in Benin. Its troops, allegedly stationed in secret bases inside Benin, swung into action.
At France’s behest, Nigeria – struggling to secure its own citizens from Boko Haram, bandits, and communal violence between herders and farmers – sent its air force to bombard Beninese army positions in Cotonou, the country’s largest city and de facto capital.
Soldiers from Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, and Ghana were also deployed alongside the Nigerian troops as part of the standby force of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional bloc under the neocolonial yoke of France. The foreign intervention put down the rebellion in the Beninese army by evening.
Read more: Propped up by foreign troops, Benin’s regime targets opposition
Propped up by foreign troops, Talon unleashed another wave of crackdown, arresting several opposition leaders. Protests were prohibited. Holding parliamentary elections in this repressive environment, Talon’s ruling coalition recaptured all the seats, retaking absolute control of the parliament.
Unable to secure the 15% endorsement from this parliament, The Democrats’ leader, Renaud Agbodjo, who had emerged as the leading opposition candidate in this presidential election held on Sunday, could not contest Wadagni.
With Talon running out of the term limit, the ruling coalition chose Finance Minister Wadagni as his successor. The only candidate allowed to contest against him was the hollowed-out FCBE’s Paul Hounkpè, the running mate of Soumanou, who had secured just over 11% of the votes in the last presidential election. His campaign was low-profile. The regime’s opponents widely perceived him as “a token sparring partner” for Wadagni.
**“The election was widely boycotted by the population”**
Large sections of the Beninese people see this as a farce, dressed up as a democratic exercise to legitimize the regime, maintains PCB activist Nidol Salami. “The election was widely boycotted by the population,” he told Peoples Dispatch. “The polling stations were deserted.”
Reuters described the turnout as “subdued”. AP reported that the “polling stations in Cotonou, the largest city, were sparsely attended throughout the morning.” More people were in attendance at the Sunday church service.
But even after church services concluded, voters were only “arriving in dribs and drabs” in the afternoon, a polling staff member in Abomey-Calavi district’s Zoundja told Xinhua, barely three hours before closing time.
Ballot stuffing
Yet, ballot boxes were found to be full in many polling stations, even before the official opening time of 7 am. At 6:20 am, 40 minutes before the official opening time, the ballot box was full in the Lac Agbodjedo polling station in Cotonou, reported the Electoral Platform of Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) of Benin.
With more than 120 ballots inserted without any record of voter registry, the ballot box in Agblangandan was filled by 6:30 am. The platform added that “some polling station staff attempted to cover up these irregularities by falsely indicating 7:00 a.m. as the start time.” It also reported several cases of multiple voting, “undermining the principle of equality of votes.”
The official voter turnout figure was thus inflated to 58.78%. The electoral commission declared Wadagni had won with over 94% on the night of April 13. Hounkpè, who was propped up to roleplay the opposition candidate to simulate an election, had already conceded victory to Wadagni.
“I offer my republican congratulations” to Wadagni, he said, adding, “Democracy requires mutual respect and the ability to rise above partisan divides.” And Benin remains “among the most stable democracies in Africa” in Western media reporting.
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