Benin President Patrice Talon while casting his ballot during Benin’s presidential election on April 11, 2021. [Photo: France 24]
Benin President Patrice Talon has been re-elected for a second term.
In the provisional results released by the national electoral commission, Mr. Talon attained the majority of the votes cast in the country’ s presidential election.
He received more than 86.3 per cent of the votes cast on Sunday.
His competitors, Allasane Soumanou got 11.3 per cent and Corentin Kohou received 2.3 per cent.
However, the runup to Benin’s presidential election was marred by violent demonstrations in the West African nation.
This resulted to low voter turnout of about 50 per cent, according to the electoral commission.
The election was also not held in 13 of the country’s 546 districts.
This is because of security problems in some areas in the country’s northern and central regions.
Even with all the chaos witnessed during the election, Benin’s electoral commission says the legality of the election was not affected.
The results will now be validated by the Constitutional Court.