A victory in Benin’s presidential election was hardly democratic

Back in 1991, as the cold war ended, Benin won the distinction of becoming the first post-colonial country on the continent of Africa to eject its incumbent ruler peacefully at the ballot box under universal suffrage. Zambia followed suit months after. A post-cold-war trend towards multiparty democracy and more open politics caught on across Africa. All the sadder, therefore, that once bouncy Benin has become yet another recent backslider.

Romuald Wadagni’s presidential campaign trail felt like a victory lap. Even his sole competitor dared not criticise him. Soon after 4.6m voters had headed to the polls on April 12th, provisional results gave the 49-year-old Mr Wadagni 94% of the vote. This was Benin’s least democratic election in almost three decades.

The winner was handpicked by Patrice Talon, Benin’s outgoing president, whose ten-year tenure married economic gains with a stark authoritarian drift. The ruling alliance of the Progressive Union Renewal and the Republican Bloc won all 109 parliamentary seats in a general election in January. The largest opposition party, Les Démocrates, was barred from competing for the presidency. The results were all but decided before the polls opened.

Successive transfers of power through elections had made the coastal west African country of less than 15m a pioneer of democracy in the region but also spurred a political fragmentation: over 200 political parties and dozens of presidential candidates popped up. Exploiting this chaos, Mr Talon enacted an array of electoral and constitutional reforms to entrench his ruling alliance. Aspirants must be sponsored by a fifth of sitting MPs. A new legislative chamber, where Mr Talon will sit, has been vested with extensive powers. He not only cleared the way for his chosen successor, but has managed to secure his own influence for years to come.

Mr Wadagni was an efficient, long-serving finance minister under Mr Talon. A former executive at Deloitte, a consulting firm, he set Mr Talon’s economic agenda. He steered Benin to its highest GDP growth in over three decades, reaching 7.5% in 2024. Income per person has jumped by 50% since 2015. Private business is more robust, the cotton industry vibrant; Mr Talon, who made much of his wealth in it before he took office, is known as Benin’s “cotton king”. Entrepreneurs say it has become easier to do business.

But Mr Wadagni shows no signs of breaking rank with his godfather in politics. Many of the old political elite have been co-opted. Several who had dared to take on Mr Talon in previous elections were barred from running again or had been exiled after being found guilty on dubious charges. Human-rights campaigners have been jailed, the courts muted.

Yet observers across the region have made little fuss, perhaps rating security as more pressing than democracy. An attempted coup last year was foiled with help from Nigerian forces. Benin has already been affected by deadly jihadist conflicts in Burkina Faso and Niger, its neighbours to the north, and in adjacent north-western Nigeria. Attacks last year on Benin’s border villages were much more numerous than the year before.

“In 20, 30, 50 years, when people have seen the positive effects of our reforms and the improvement in people’s living conditions, everyone will forget the criticisms that made people think our democracy was in decline,” says a government spokesman. Can one be so sure? ■