Although official results have not yet been published, provisional voting counts for the presidential elections show a very clear victory for 57-year-old former entrepreneur Patrice Talon. Estimations give Talon 65% of the votes compared to a 35.2% for outgoing Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou who has already congratulated him with the result. After the first round of voting on the 6th of March, Zinsou won 27.1 percent of the votes with Talon coming in second on 23.5 percent. Since then however, 24 of the 32 other candidates from the first round have come out in support of Talon, including third-placed Sebastien Ajavon, who had won 22 percent of the votes.

For more information on the elections results:
Read more (1) >>
Read more (2) >>

Read more (3) >> For more information on the candidates and the key issues preceding the election rounds.

Both campaigns have been criticized by civic organizations who claim that the two camps allegedly attempt to buy votes and that there were cases of ballot-box stuffing in districts in both the center and north of Benin. However, Benin's reputation as a democracy is likely to remain, given that it was the first West African country to move from one party dictatorship to multi-party elections in 1991.

Patrice Talon was a longtime ally of former President Yayi Boni until he was accused of masterminding a plot to poison Yayi Boni in 2012. A year later, Talon was implicated in an alleged plan to launch a coup against the Beninese leader. Six of Talon’s alleged accomplices went to jail, and the embattled businessman fled to France. He was however pardoned by Yayi Boni in 2014.