Polls close in Benin as voters choose successor to President Talon

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Polls closed in Benin on Sunday as voters chose a successor to President Patrice Talon, who is stepping down after ruling for a decade, according to the Associated Press. Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, a member of the governing coalition and its candidate for the seven-year term, is widely seen as the frontrunner. Wadagni faces Paul Hounkpè, the sole opposition candidate, in an election in which counting started Sunday afternoon and results were expected within 48 hours, the report said.

The AP reported that nearly 8 million people were registered to vote across more than 17,000 polling stations. Benin’s population is about 15 million, according to the AP account, and voters are being drawn from a country whose population is “overwhelmingly young,” the report said. In major city areas, the AP described turnout as low in recent years, and it said polling stations in Cotonou were sparsely attended through the morning.

In Cotonou, the largest city, the AP reported that the atmosphere was quiet as the election began, with public demonstrations banned on election day while stores and streets remained open. That kind of restrictions were at the center of criticism from opposition leaders and rights groups, which the AP said have accused Talon’s government of using the justice system to sideline political opponents.

Wadagni’s candidacy comes after a parliamentary election in January, which the AP said left Talon’s two allied parties controlling all 109 seats in the National Assembly. The AP said opposition parties failed to cross a 20% threshold required to win seats. Political analysts cited by the AP said those results helped entrench the ruling coalition that now backs Wadagni.

Hounkpè, the AP said, indicated after the polls closed that he would accept the outcome depending on how the vote is handled. He told reporters: “As for transparency and fairness, it is normal that, if it is done properly, we will accept the results.”

The AP also reported that Renaud Agbodjo, leader of the Democrats, was barred from competing after failing to secure the parliamentary endorsements needed under the election process. Critics, according to the AP, argued that the endorsement threshold was designed to keep rivals out.

Wadagni has framed his campaign around Benin’s economic record from his time as finance minister, with the AP saying the country’s economy grew 7% last year. A political analyst at the Lagos-based Béhanzin Institute, Fiacre Vidjingninou, told the AP that “Ten years at the Finance Ministry have given him something rare in African politics: a quantified record — verifiable and difficult to dismantle in a serious debate.”

In remarks on Sunday, Talon said he was leaving office with “the feeling of having given my best,” the AP reported. He added: “Whatever the outcome of the vote, Benin has reached a milestone in its history.”

Beyond politics, the AP noted that Benin faces security pressure in the north, where the report said a growing jihadi insurgency is linked to violence spilling over from neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger. The AP said the tri-border area has long been a hotspot for extremist violence and that the threat has been worsened by what it described as a lack of security cooperation with Niger and Burkina Faso, now led by military juntas. The AP identified the extremist group as Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM.

The AP also pointed to broader instability across Africa, including an attempted coup in December by military officers that it described as failed. According to the AP, one of the coup leaders’ complaints was the deterioration of security in northern Benin. Beverly Ochieng, an analyst at Control Risks Group, told the AP that if Wadagni wins, the new government will likely continue Talon-era policies to position Benin as a stable investment environment, while operating with a “largely constrained opposition,” the report said.

Alongside the security concerns, the AP said Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have denounced what they called a sustained crackdown on dissent under Talon. Their allegations, as summarized by the AP, include arbitrary detentions, tighter restrictions on public demonstrations, and increased pressure on independent media outlets. The AP said protests over rising living costs had appeared in recent years but that the government and security forces clamped down on demonstrations.