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Alexander Stroh the Major Event of the Year Was the Presidential Benin Alexander Stroh The major event of the year was the presidential elections, won by Patrice Talon. The new president portrayed his government and politics as a complete break with the policies of the outgoing administration. After years of ambiguous foreign relations, particularly with donor countries, the new president attracted new donor interest and was able to rely on the anticipated confidence of the donor community. The new administration diversified Benin’s portfolio of international partners but its rhetoric still had to translate into action. Economic and social vul- nerability remained high, although Benin did not experience any major economic shocks. Domestic Politics The election of a new head of state and the first steps of the newly elected Talon government dominated the political agenda. Benin’s sixth democratic presiden- tial elections had been heralded as a watershed following the heated political debates in recent years under President Boni Yayi’s controversial leadership. Yayi © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2�17 | doi 1�.1163/9789004355910_005 46 stroh was constitutionally excluded from standing in the elections as he had reached the end of his second term in office. Although he had been suspected of trying to force through a constitutional amendment that would have allowed him to run for a third term, Yayi respected the two-term limit. He supported the candidacy of his prime minister, Lionel Zinsou. Zinsou had only returned from Paris in mid-2015 and was a complete newcomer to the domestic political scene. With Yayi’s support, he became the presidential can- didate of the ruling party ‘Forces Cauris pour un Bénin Émergeant’ (FCBE). Zinsou also secured the support of Yayi’s political ally, Léhady Soglo, of ‘Renaissance du Bénin’ (RB). Nicéphore Soglo, Léhady’s father and former head of state (1991–6) and still the RB’s honorary president, publicly deplored his son’s decision and con- demned the alliance as “high treason”, implying neo-colonial sympathies related to Zinsou’s deep personal ties with France. In January, the ‘Parti pour le Renouveau Démocratique’ (PRD) surprisingly joined the ‘Republican Alliance’ of the FCBE and RB backing Zinsou. PRD founder and leader Adrien Houngbédji had been a fierce opponent of Yayi in recent years and so his election as parliamentary president a few months earlier was widely understood as a major success for the opposition. On 29 January, the Constitutional Court handed over a list of 36 registered presi- dential candidates who met all the legal criteria approved by the ‘Commission Électorale Nationale Autonome’ (CENA). Three of the less promising candidates withdrew their candidacies immediately after they were admitted. Besides Zinsou, the list of the most hopeful presidential aspirants included the businessmen Patrice Talon and Sébastien Ajavon, the experienced politician and international econo- mist Abdoulaye Bio Tchané and former prime minister Pascal Koupaki, who had dissociated himself from Yayi after political and personal disagreements. Most of the country’s most experienced politicians – including National Assembly President Houngbédji – were excluded by a constitutional age limit for presidential candidates of 70 years. The majority of the other candidates were former members of parliament or ministers, including close allies of Yayi such as his senior ministers Marcel de Souza (who was also his brother-in-law), Kogui N’Douro and Nassirou Bako Arifari. They all refused to support Zinsou. Media attention focused on Talon and Ajavon, who were political newcomers like Zinsou. Talon had only returned from Paris in December 2015 following a fierce confrontation with President Yayi, who had accused Talon of attempting to orches- trate his murder. Talon had been sought under an international arrest warrant, but Yayi had eventually dropped the charges. Talon was then able to return to Benin and run for president and to freely organise his candidacy and electoral campaign. Ajavon, who had not previously shown an active interest in politics, entered the race unexpectedly. Talon and Ajavon both were among Benin’s richest business- men; they lacked the organisational support of a political party, but could rely on .
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