Vote counting began in Benin on Sunday in a presidential poll that was boycotted by some opposition parties over violence triggered by objections to President Patrice Talon’s quest for a second five-year mandate.
Compared to previous elections, voter turnout was low and reports indicate that there were widespread problems in identifying or registering voters, a group of civil society organizations monitoring the election said in a statement.
They did not provide comparative figures.
“Incidents such as ballot box stuffing, sequestration of observers and intimidation of voters were recorded almost everywhere,” said the Electoral Platform of Civil Society Organisations of Benin.
Protests in several cities this week turned violent. Some people were killed in gunfire on Thursday in the central town of Bante when security forces fired warning shots, its mayor told local radio, without saying how many died.
After casting his vote at a primary school in the commercial capital Cotonou, President Talon said Benin was “writing another page in its history despite the intimidation”.
“There are people who have mobilized fighters to attack the republic. Police officers have been attacked with weapons of war. It is regrettable,” he said.
However, these reports have still not been authoritatively confirmed.
Among the protesters’ complaints are Talon’s U-turn on a pledge he made as a candidate in 2016 to serve only one term, and changes he pushed through to election laws, which resulted in total control of parliament by Talon’s supporters and the exclusion of leading opponents from the presidential race.
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