Benin holds presidential election with finance minister favored to succeed Talon
COTONOU, Benin (AP) — The polls have closed in Benin where voters cast their ballots on Sunday to choose a successor to President Patrice Talon, who is stepping down after a decade in power, leaving a mixed legacy of economic growth, a growing jihadi insurgency in the north, and the suppression of opposition critics.
Romuald Wadagni, the 49-year-old finance minister and governing coalition standard-bearer, is considered Talon’s anointed successor for the seven-year term. Wadagni is being challenged by Paul Hounkpè, the sole opposition candidate.
Nearly 8 million are registered to vote across more than 17,000 polling stations in the West African nation. Benin had over 15 million people in 2024, and like many sub-Saharan African countries, its population is overwhelmingly young.
Vote counting began Sunday afternoon after the polls closed, with results expected within 48 hours.
Turnout has been low in recent years, and polling stations in Cotonou, the largest city, were sparsely attended throughout the morning. The city was quiet as the election began, with public demonstrations banned on election day, but stores and streets remain open.
Analysts widely expect Wadagni to win after a parliamentary election in January, during which the opposition failed to cross the 20% threshold required to win seats, leaving Talon’s two allied parties in control of all 109 seats in the National Assembly.
Hounkpè said that he would accept the result depending on the transparency and fairness of the electoral process. “As for transparency and fairness, it is normal that, if it is done properly, we will accept the results,” he said after the polls had closed.
Renaud Agbodjo, leader of the Democrats, was barred from competing after failing to secure a sufficient number of parliamentary endorsements — a threshold critics say was engineered to keep rivals out.
Wadagni has touted the country's economic growth during his decade as finance minister as his key strength. Benin’s economy grew 7% last year, making it one of West Africa’s steadiest performers.
“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,” said Fiacre Vidjingninou, political analyst at the Lagos-based Béhanzin Institute.
Talon said Sunday he was “leaving office with the feeling of having given my best, of having led the country to take some steps forward in all areas.” He added: “Whatever the outcome of the vote, Benin has reached a milestone in its history.”
While Benin has historically been among the most stable democracies in Africa, opposition leaders and human rights organizations have accused Talon of using the justice system as a tool to sideline his political opponents.
Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have denounced a sustained crackdown on dissent under Talon, citing arbitrary detentions, tighter restrictions on public demonstrations, and mounting pressure on independent media outlets.
Protests over the rising cost of living sprang up in recent years, but the government and security forces clamped down on any dissent.
Beverly Ochieng, an analyst at the Control Risks Group consulting firm, told The Associated Press that, in the event of a Wadagni victory, the new government will likely continue Talon's policies aimed at positioning Benin as a stable investment environment, while facing a largely constrained opposition.
“Wadagni may want to avert a crisis in confidence by first consolidating power then engaging in dialogue with opponents to demonstrate goodwill,” Ochieng said.
In December, a group of military officers attempted to topple Talon’s government in a failed coup, the latest in a series of recent military takeover attempts across Africa. Most attempted coups follow a similar pattern of disputed elections, constitutional upheaval, security crises, and youth discontent.
Among the coup leaders’ key complaints was the deterioration of security in northern Benin.
For years, Benin has faced spillover violence in its north from neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger in their battle against the al-Qaida-affiliated extremist group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, or JNIM.
The tri-border area has long been a hotbed for extremist violence, a trend worsened by the lack of security cooperation with Niger and Burkina Faso, both now led by military juntas.
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McMakin Contributed from Dakar
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