President Talon's undemocratic re-election in Benin

 

Here are some excerpts from my WaPo Monkey Cage post about Benin's election in April. Benin has become less and less democratic since Talon won the presidency in 2016. 

Benin continues to slide toward autocracy

Benin’s April 11 elections have many analysts increasingly concerned that the country is following a recent pattern of democratic decline in Africa. ...

The details of Benin’s slide toward autocracy fit a distinct pattern outlined in “How Democracies Die,” a comprehensive analysis of how democratic underpinnings cease to function. Authors Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt point out that, unlike the dramatic revolutions or coups that once displaced democracies, in recent decades, democratic regimes tend to succumb via marginal changes, including “legal” reforms such as laws regulating elections and the media. Other political scientists refer to this process as “authoritarianization.”

Levitsky and Ziblatt identify four key indicators of authoritarian behavior, all of which emerged in Talon’s Benin. 

1. Rejection of (or weak commitment to) democratic rules of the game ... 

2. Denial of the legitimacy of political opponents ...  

3. Toleration or encouragement of violence ...  

4. Readiness to curtail civil liberties of opponents, including media  

Talon targeted independent and opposition-owned media after his election in 2016. The government prosecuted and jailed journalists and bloggers under a 2016 digital media law that restricts press freedom and criminalizes press offenses. Benin’s government also shut down opposition-owned newspapers and broadcasters. 

In 2018, the Constitutional Court declared the right to strike a constitutional right, and struck down a law to ban strikes by public-sector unions. Talon then replaced the court’s members and placed his former personal lawyer and justice minister as head justice, and the court reversed itself. 

Using a bit-by-bit approach, Talon effectively banned opposition parties. In 2018, the National Assembly adopted a restrictive new electoral code and revised Charter of Political Parties. In 2019, the Talon-aligned Constitutional Court created the requirement of a Certificate of Compliance, issued by the Ministry of the Interior, for parties to be legally recognized. 

Soon after, the electoral commission disqualified all opposition parties. For example, Ajavon’s party was blocked when the ministry denied it a certificate, citing Ajavon’s 2018 drug-smuggling conviction. In the 2019 parliamentary elections, which also had historically low turnout, two new pro-Talon parties — the only competition allowed on the ballot — won all the legislative seats. 

Talon then built upon the groundwork of the 2019 opposition-free legislative election to construct an opposition-light presidential election in 2021. The two pro-Talon parties amended the electoral law to create a new endorsement requirement for presidential candidates: sponsorship from 10 percent of the 83-seat National Assembly and the 77 mayorships. But all opposition parties were eliminated in the legislature, and only one opposition party — the rump of the previous ruling party, the FCBE — was permitted in the 2020 local elections, leaving just seven mayors from opposition parties. This meant no candidate could enter the 2021 presidential election without the approval of Talon’s allies. 

The presidential majority denied the requisite sponsorships to strong opponents like Joel Aivo, and greenlit candidates acceptable to Talon’s political supporters, presumably because they posed little threat. .. 

The absence of challengers prompted most opposition parties to boycott this election. Turnout, at 50 percent, was the lowest since 1991, when Benin introduced multiparty elections for a president, and lower than any legislative election other than 2019. 

Talon, who had promised in 2016 not to run for a second term, now promises not to run for a third. But the path has been cleared to break that promise, following the trajectory of democratic decline in the region.

 

Here are some other good articles about the election:

Benin’s militant problem may worsen after last month’s election.  Christina Cottiero

Benin’s King of Cotton Makes Its Democracy a Sham. Tim Hirschel-Burns

The Dismantling of Benin’s Democracy.  Mark Duerksen