The Talon Alliance Wipes Out the Opposition in Benin Election

Benin’s provisional legislative results mark a decisive consolidation of political power around President Patrice Talon’s ruling alliance, combining electoral engineering with security stabilization after a failed coup. Out of the five parties contesting the January 11, 2026 vote, only the Progressive Union for Renewal and the Republican Bloc, both aligned with Talon, crossed the legal threshold, capturing all 109 seats in the National Assembly. The Progressive Union for Renewal secured 60 MPs, while the Republican Bloc won 49, according to the electoral commission.

Under the revised electoral code, parties must obtain 20 percent of the national vote and 20 percent in each of Benin’s 24 electoral districts to qualify for seat allocation, a structure that excluded the opposition despite measurable national support.

The main opposition party, The Democrats, won about 16 percent of the vote but failed to meet the district threshold. Turnout stood at 36.7 percent, roughly in line with the 37 percent recorded in the 2023 legislative elections. Guy Mitokpe, spokesperson for The Democrats, framed the outcome as systemic exclusion, stating: “We denounced this electoral code, saying that it heavily favoured parties aligned with the president. It’s an exclusionary electoral code. As proof, we won’t have a candidate in the presidential election, and we were excluded from the municipal elections.” The same signature requirements barred the party from local polls held alongside the legislative vote.

Coup Attempt Before an Election

The political consolidation follows acute security instability triggered by a foiled coup attempt on December 7, 2025. Soldiers briefly seized state television, and gunfire was reported near key sites.

Benin’s interior minister said a “small group of soldiers” attempted the coup but was stopped by the army, adding that “the situation is under control” and urging citizens to resume normal life.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) condemned the attempt and announced the deployment of Nigerian, Sierra Leonean, Ghanaian, and Ivorian troops to Benin as a Standby Force.

The foreign minister later confirmed that around 200 soldiers from Nigeria and Côte d’Ivoire had arrived to support security “clean-up” operations.

By December 11, 2025, officials said the leader of the foiled coup had fled to Togo and that Benin was seeking his extradition.

AFP reported that the Republican Guard chief said French special forces were deployed on Sunday in response to the attempted coup.

These layered interventions, regional, bilateral, and French, created a security buffer around the political process, enabling the legislative vote to proceed amid heightened military presence.

Succession Politics Under Constraint

The parliamentary sweep strengthens the presidential bloc ahead of the April 2026 presidential election. Talon, 67, is barred from standing again after 10 years in office due to term limits, despite a November constitutional reform extending the presidential term to seven years with a two-term limit. His handpicked successor, Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, is expected to contest the presidency, while The Democrats are excluded after failing to gather enough signatures to register a candidate.

The combined effect of the rule, the exclusion of opposition parties from municipal, legislative, and presidential races, and the post-coup security architecture has produced a legislature without opposition representation. The structure centralizes legislative authority in two aligned parties, reshaping executive - legislative balance at a moment when Benin is managing both political transition and external security guarantees. The result is a National Assembly allegedly defined less by plural competition than by institutional alignment with the presidency, underwritten by regional and foreign security deployments.