By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Benin’s electoral body, the National Autonomous Electoral Commission (CENA) on Saturday released provisional results of the country’s January 11 legislative elections, in which government-aligned parties securing all 109 seats, leaving opposition with no single win.
A result signed by CENA President, Sacca Lafia indicates that the Progressive Union for Renewal (UP-R) and the Republican Bloc (BR) were the only parties to meet Electoral Code requirements and will share all 109 seats in the 10th National Assembly.
UP-R won 60 seats, comprising 44 regular seats and 16 reserved for women, after getting 41.15% of valid ballots cast.
Also, the Republican Bloc, with 36.64% win secured 49 seats, including 41 regular seats and eight reserved for women.
Voting took place in 17,350 polling units nationwide, with 2.8 million voters cast their ballots out of more than 7.8 million registered voters. This represents 36.73% turnout. 87,400 ballots were voided.
The West African country’s electoral code requires parties secure 20% in each of the country’s 24 constituencies to qualify for seat allocation.
Despite winning 16.16% of the national vote, the Democrats (LD) failed to meet this threshold in several constituencies, including the 11th constituency, where it received 2.89%, and the 24th with 3.36%. It was therefore excluded from parliament.
The provisional results indicate that several senior political figures, including National Assembly speaker Louis Vlavonou of UP-R in the 21st constituency, Joseph Djogbenou of the same party in the 23rd, and Minister of State Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, from BR, in Djougou won their elections.
The electoral body has forwarded the results to the Constitutional Court, which will rule on any disputes and affirm the final results in the coming days.
The elections follow reforms introduced since 2019 aimed at streamlining the party system and strengthening institutional stability.
The parliamentary elections were the only recent elections in which the main opposition party, the Democrats, were allowed to participate, yet it failed to secure a seat.
