Provisional win for presidential coalition

Provisional results have given the coalition supporting President Boni Yayi the majority of seats in Benin’s recent legislative elections, the constitutional court has announced.

The Forces for an Emerging Benin won 35 of the 83 seats in the 31 March poll, followed by the Alliance for a Dynamic Democracy with 20 seats, which includes the party of former president Nicéphore Soglo, the court said on Saturday.

The Democratic Renewal party of opposition leader Adrien Houngbédji won 10 seats. The remaining 18 seats went to smaller parties.

Eighty percent of the seats were overturned, indicating that Benin’s voters wanted change, according to observers. The polls marked Benin’s fifth legislative elections since the country made the transition to democracy in 1990.

Some four million voters - over half of the 7.5 million population - registered to vote in the legislative elections, but some people said their names did not appear on the list even though they registered.

CENA apparently only received the electoral lists on 22 March, three days before the election.

President Yayi, a political novice and former banker, was elected in a landslide victory last year on a platform to end corruption and economic crimes, and “reinstate ethics” in state institutions.

The 31 March legislative polls had been postponed for one week because of “numerous difficulties” which would have prevented the National Election Commission (CENA) of ensuring the voting process was free and fair, according to the presidency. The election commission had requested the delay.

sa/cs