Benin’s Talon Reelected President With 86 Percent Of Vote

Benin’s President Patrice Talon has been reelected to a second term, winning 86.3 percent of the vote, according to preliminary results announced by the electoral commission.

According to the provisional results, his opponents Alassane Soumanou and Corentin Kohoue got 11.29 and 2.25 percent respectively. Benin’s constitutional court must now verify the final results.

In the meantime critics have called the election a sham saying it was already stacked in Patrice Talon’s favour following a crackdown on his opponents.

Reckya Madougou, one opposition leader who was barred from running, was detained last month, accused of plotting to disrupt the vote.

Earlier, some international observer missions had noted low turnout in the election, though they said the vote generally went ahead peacefully despite prior tensions and protests.

But Government officials have dismissed the claims and said exiled opposition leaders were trying to have the vote cancelled with a smear campaign

Talon who was first elected to lead the West African state in 2016, faced two rivals in Sunday’s vote with most of his key opponents in exile or disqualified from running.

With the 62-year-old incumbent almost guaranteed victory, analysts had said voter turnout would be a key measure of his election success.