Voters in Benin went to the polls on Sunday for a parliamentary election seen as a test of democracy as opposition parties are back on the ballot after boycotting or being excluded from the most recent presidential and legislative votes.
Benin's image as a bastion of democracy and stability in West Africa has been dented under President Patrice Talon, who went back on a pledge not to run for another term and oversaw an opposition crackdown since coming to power in 2016.
Seven parties are competing for 109 parliamentary seats in Sunday's vote, including the Democrates party linked to Talon's predecessor and rival Thomas Boni Yayi. Boni Yayi's supporters led protests in 2019 after opposition parties were blocked from the legislative vote for failing to meet strict new election criteria.
Polling stations were quiet in the commercial capital Cotonou on Sunday morning, and there was no sign of unrest.
"I see that we are definitively turning the bad pages of our recent political history now everyone is going to the elections with enthusiasm," Talon said after voting at a primary school in Cotonou.
Preliminary results, expected on Jan. 11, may be an indicator of the strength of the political forces jostling to succeed Talon. The next presidential election is due in 2026, when the next parliamentary vote will also be held.
Talon does not belong to any party but is supported by the two parties currently in power in parliament - the Bloc Republicain and Union Progressiste le Renouveau.
'PEACE AND TRANSPARENCY'
There was no immediate sign the vote will see protests like in 2019 or those that broke out in 2021 against Talon's decision to seek re-election, said political analyst Expedit Ologou, head of Beninois thinktank Civic Academy for Africa’s Future.
With more parties on the ballot, turnout should return to normal levels of around 60% after slumping to just 27% in 2019, Ologou said.
Under Talon, political protests have been met with deadly police violence, while politicised prosecutions and other legal tactics have been used to stifle the opposition, U.S. democracy watchdog Freedom House said in its 2022 report.
Talon has denied targeting political opponents or violating human rights.
"This is a very important vote for Benin, especially since this time all parties...are allowed to participate. We want everything to go well in peace and transparency," said 72-year-old Prosper Adoukonou after voting in Cotonou.
Benin's agriculture-dependent economy has rebounded since the coronavirus pandemic, growing over 7% in 2021 and the first half of 2022. But the country of 12 million remains one of the poorest in the world. A fifth of the population lives on less than $1.90 per day, World Bank data show.
Regional security may be high up voters' concerns in this election as Benin, alongside neighbouring Togo and Ivory Coast, has seen increasing attacks from militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State as violence creeps south from the Sahel countries of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.
The insecurity and higher living costs linked to the war in Ukraine pose a threat to recent economic gains, the International Monetary Fund warned last July.
(Writing by Alessandra Prentice,; Editing by Sofia Christensen, Frances Kerry and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
