Finance minister favourite to win Benin presidential poll
Benin election officials began counting votes after Sunday’s election for a president, with Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni the favourite, having overseen a decade of economic growth despite jihadist attacks in the north. The head of the electoral commission, Sacca Lafia, said the election had passed off peacefully. But an electoral monitoring platform set up by […]
An electoral official writes the results on a board during vote counting at a polling station in Porto-Novo, on April 12, 2026 during Benin’s presidential elections. (Photo by OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT / AFP)
Benin election officials began counting votes after Sunday’s election for a president, with Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni the favourite, having overseen a decade of economic growth despite jihadist attacks in the north.
The head of the electoral commission, Sacca Lafia, said the election had passed off peacefully.
But an electoral monitoring platform set up by civil society groups reported around a hundred incident ‘alerts’ that morning.
These cases involved voting stations that had opened early or where voting boxes appeared full before the start of voting.
Nearly eight million voters were eligible to cast ballots to choose a successor to Patrice Talon, who steps down after two five-year terms, having endorsed Wadagni as his successor.
In the voting stations visited by AFP journalists, there were few signs of a strong turnout for the vote in the West African country.
In the capital, Porto-Novo, participation ranged between a mere 20 and 40 per cent for some polling stations.
Voting stations started closing at 4:00 pm (1500 GMT) and the count started soon afterwards.
Preliminary results are expected early in the coming week.
Wadagni cast his vote to little fanfare in his southwestern home town of Lokossa.
But crowds of clapping supporters greeted Talon, the outgoing president, as he arrived to do the same in Cotonou’s business district of Zongo.
“The best is to come for Benin,” he said as he emerged from the polling booth.
“My wish is to see a great and powerful Benin in which everyone finds their place,” he added.
While Talon said he intended to retire and would not be seeking to influence his successor, he added: “It is illusory to think that one can fade into the background.”
Backed by the two main ruling parties, Wadagni is being challenged by Paul Hounkpe, an opposition figure whose campaign has been very low-key and who needed help from majority lawmakers to secure the required parliamentary endorsements to get on the ballot.
Casting his ballot in the town of Bopa, where he once served as mayor, Hounkpe called on “all Beninese” to “fulfil their duty… to turn a page” in the country’s history.
The main opposition, the Democratic Party, is not fielding a candidate as its leader, Renaud Agbodjo, failed to secure the required number of parliamentary endorsements needed to contest the vote.