Benin’s Patrice Talon re-elected with 86% of the vote
Talon faced two little-known rivals in Sunday’s election, with most opposition figures either living in exile or disqualified from running.
CAPE TOWN, April 14 (ANA) – Benin’s President Patrice Talon has been re-elected with 86% of the votes, according to provisional results released by the national electoral commission.
Talon faced two little-known rivals in Sunday’s election, with most opposition figures from the West African country either living in exile or disqualified from running.
According to a BBC report, Allasane Soumanou got about 11.3% while Corentin Kohoué came in third with 2.3%. Overall voter turnout was about 50%.
Local and international media reported that the election could not be held in 13 of the country’s 546 districts, because of security problems in some areas in the country’s northern and central regions.
According to Voice of America, opposition leaders in the West African nation had called for a boycott of Sunday’s election, accusing Talon of pushing through election laws which disqualified his rivals or forcing them to leave the country.
The results are awaiting validation by the constitutional court.
Talon, who took power in 2016, announced his ambition for running for a second term early this year.
Violence erupted across the country in the weeks leading to the election, with citizens saying the president has “broken” his promise of only serving one term in office.
Several people were killed in gunfire just a week before the elections.
Xinhua news agency reports that according to the provisions of the new Beninese electoral law in force, the president is elected in tandem with a vice-president by direct universal suffrage for a five-year term that is renewable only once.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher