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Counting underway in Benin’s hastily-organised poll

[Benin] Benin's president Mathieu Kerekou has said he will retire in 2006. Gouvernment du Benin
President Mathieu Kerekou has said he will stand down at the end of his term
Sunday’s election in Benin went off smoothly despite a rush to organise the second and decisive round in less than 48 hours, and counting was underway with results expected by Thursday, officials said. “I can say we are satisfied,” said Bio Yarou Tanga, the National Electoral Commission’s (CENA) second vice-chairman. “We started on time which was not an easy thing to do. The second round went off better than the first.” Still some were concerned that fewer voters came out than for the first round 5 March. “Turnout may be low - at 50 or 60 percent,” he added. Facing off in the presidential poll were political newcomer Boni Yayi and veteran Adrien Houngbedji, neither of whom even had time to campaign for the second round. “I pat CENA on the back,” said Julien Attakla, an observer from the Civil Society Front of Organisations. “Despite the haste, the result is satisfactory. It’s a pity that voters did not turn out massively though.” Town criers had to be dispatched on Saturday to bang gongs across the tiny country of seven million people following a last-minute government ruling late on Friday that the election would take place in less than 48 hours, despite a CENA appeal for more time. While the CENA successfully delivered voting papers and ballot boxes on time, town criers failed to reach all of the country’s four million voters, especially in remote villages and rural communities. “We all thought the second round of the election would be held next Wednesday,” said Ayaba Toukon, who lives in Toffo in central Benin. “So many of the villagers had already left to work in the fields by the time the town crier arrived.” Benin’s government late Friday rejected an appeal from the CENA for more time to organise the second round in the country’s key presidential election. Under Benin’s constitution, if a candidate fails to win an outright majority of more than 50 percent in the first round, a final run-off between the two leading contenders must be held two weeks later. But because the results of the first round were announced only last week, CENA chairman Sylvain Nouwatin had called for a postponement of four days until Wednesday 22 March in order to give the candidates time to campaign. Nouwatin had said at the weekend that election officials would do their utmost. “We’ve been backed up against the wall, which means we are obliged to go ahead,” he said. “We will do our best in order that all goes off as well as possible.” Nouwatin’s appeal for a postponement had been backed by the Constitutional Court, which also called on the government to put off the election to next week. But President Mathieu Kerekou, who cannot run for re-election because of a constitutional age and term limits, said after casting his vote on Sunday that it had been vital to respect the constitution. “If the CENA had persisted in holding the election on 22 March, we would have faced an impasse. But instead it understood that it was better not to violate the constitution.” The election is set to end almost three decades in office for Kerekou, and the run-up was clouded by fears that he might refuse to step down when his term expires on 6 April. The former military ruler introduced multi-party politics in 1991 and since has served two successive mandates. Official results from the first round showed Yayi led the field of 26 contenders with 35.64 percent of the vote while Houngbedji garnered 24.12 percent. Yayi was tipped by observers this weekend as the likely winner after 11 of the 24 remaining candidates from the first round urged supporters to back him. Yayi, a 54-year-old who last month resigned as chairman of the Togo-based West African Development Bank to run in the election, is an independent backed by a coalition of groups and parties. Houngbedji, the 64-year-old leader of the Democratic Renewal Party, is a veteran politician who twice served as speaker of parliament.

This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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