Campaign posters with photographs of incumbent President Patrice Talon and running mate
PORTO-NOVO, April 9 (NNN-AGENCIES) — With three days to go before the presidential election, Benin voters remain split over the election, with some saying they will support current President Patrice Talon for reelection, while others are criticising the vote as skewed in Talon’s favour after the main opposition leaders were sidelined in a crackdown.
One person was killed and six were wounded by gunfire on Thursday, a local health official said, after troops in Benin cleared protesters in a flashpoint town three days before President Patrice Talon seeks re-election.
Protests have erupted in opposition bastions ahead of Sunday’s vote, which critics say is skewed in Talon’s favour after the main opposition leaders were sidelined in a crackdown.
A column of military vehicles arrived early Thursday to disperse demonstrators in the central city of Save, a flare point of protests two years ago, where makeshift barricades of trees and tyres blocked a major road.
The director of a local dispensary in Save said he had taken in one dead and six wounded by gunshots.
“We admitted them at our clinic… One dead from a live round and six with bullet wounds,” said Jose Godjo, head of the Boni clinic in Save. “All the wounded have been transferred to a hospital in Save.”
Benin, lying between Togo and Nigeria on the Gulf of Guinea, was once praised as a vibrant multi-party democracy in an often troubled region.
But critics say the country spiralled into authoritarianism after Talon was first elected in 2016.
The cotton tycoon faces two little-known rivals on Sunday — most key opposition figures either live in exile or have been disqualified from running.
Talon, 62, is campaigning on his economic record, which includes improvements to key infrastructure such as roads, water and energy supplies.
In the final days of campaigning, the economic capital Cotonou was adorned with blue posters of Talon and his running mate, Mariam Talata.
Following 17 years of military rule along Marxist-Leninist lines, the former French colony opened up into a multi-party democracy in 1990.
An amendment to the electoral law in 2019 also required presidential candidates to be sponsored by at least 16 deputies or mayors. Only six of these 159 elected officials belong to an opposition party.
That meant election officials disqualified many opposition figures from running in Sunday’s vote as they lacked the required documents.
Only two opposition candidates were approved: former minister Alassane Soumanou and Corentin Kohoue, a dissident candidate from the opposition Democrats party. — NNN-AGENCIES
