First municipal elections since return to multiparty rule

Voters in Benin went to the polls on Sunday in the country's first municipal elections since the end of one-party rule in 1990. Some three million people were eligible to elect their mayors and municipal councillors, previously designated by the government. The otherwise calm election was marred by disturbances in Cotonou's Douzieme Arrondissement (12th ward), stronghold of ex-president Nicephore Soglo, who ran for mayor of Coronou against former trade minister Severin Adjovi. Adjovi was President Matthieu Kerekou's campaign director at the last presidential election. Voting was cancelled in some parts of the Douzieme Arrondissement and did not take place in others because voting material either arrived late or was not supplied, sparking angry reactions from would-be voters. The chairman of the Autonomous National Election Commission (CENA), Soule Agbetou, was stoned by a crowd at one of the polling stations and had to be rescued by police.