Benin’s finance minister Romuald Wadagni was expected to coast to victory in a presidential election on \u200bSunday, buoyed by strong economic growth and the absence of a credible challenger amid mounting fears over jihadist violence.<\/p>\n
President Patrice Talon, \u200cwho has ruled the West African nation since 2016 but is unable to seek a third term under the constitution, selected Wadagni to succeed him. That means he has the backing of the dominant ruling coalition in the race, which is taking place four months after Talon\u2019s government narrowly survived\u00a0a coup attempt.<\/p>\n
Voting got underway in the largest city, Cotonou, \u200bat 7 a.m. (0600 GMT). Early turnout was subdued, though election officials said they expected lines to swell after morning church services end.<\/p>\n
WADAGNI VOWS \u200bTO GOVERN IN SIMILAR WAY TO PREDECESSOR<\/strong><\/p>\n At a polling station in the Zongo-Nima neighbourhood, women bearing cardboard signs reading “Merci Talon” \u2060and “Merci Papa” waited for the outgoing president, expected there to cast his ballot.<\/p>\n Talon “finished his job, and he’s now leaving the political scene,” voter Daouda Idriss \u200bsaid.<\/p>\n Wadagni, who has served as finance minister for a decade, has vowed to govern in much the same manner as Talon, promising to deliver on bread-and-butter \u200bissues like expanding access to clean water and guaranteeing emergency healthcare regardless of ability to pay.<\/p>\n He will also face pressure to address the country’s security problems. Benin has been the\u00a0hardest hit\u00a0among coastal West African states by jihadist groups who have made major incursions in the central Sahel.<\/p>\n The 49-year-old\u00a0former executive of accountants Deloitte\u00a0voted in his hometown of \u200bLokossa, in southern Benin, wearing all white and accompanied by his wife.<\/p>\n Polls were scheduled to close at 4 p.m. (1500 GMT). More than 7.9 million people \u200bwere registered to vote, including 62,000 in the diaspora of Benin nationals living abroad. Provisional results were expected on Tuesday.<\/p>\n OPPONENT SAYS GAINS FROM GROWTH ARE LIMITED<\/strong><\/p>\n The main opposition party, \u200cThe Democrats, \u2060failed to get enough lawmakers to sponsor a candidate of its own and did not back the only other candidate on the ballot – Paul Hounkpe of the Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin, which was once the ruling party but now commands only a smaller following.<\/p>\n Hounkpe says growth under Talon and Wadagni has not improved the lives of most people. “If we make progress but none of us can afford three meals a day, we haven’t made any progress. \u200bYes or no?” he said at \u200ba rally earlier this month.<\/p>\n He has \u2060also decried what he described as a climate of fear as political space for the opposition shrinks, with the ruling coalition holding every seat in the National Assembly.<\/p>\n On the campaign trail, many prospective voters spoke of the presidential \u200belection as a formality and urged Wadagni to deliver on his platform.<\/p>\n \u201cOnce President Romuald Wadagni is at the head \u200bof this country, \u2060I would like him to promote and help young people to find work because we have many young graduates on the streets driving ‘zem’,” said 34-year-old teacher Marcel Sovi, using a local slang word for motorcycle taxis.<\/p>\n Christelle Tessi, a 40-year-old trader, said Wadagni should focus on improving security in the north, where al Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nusrat \u2060al\u2011Islam wal\u2011Muslimin\u00a0killed \u200b54 Benin soldiers\u00a0in one attack a year ago and another 15 in an attack \u200blast month.<\/p>\n “What is happening in northern Benin is that our brothers are being killed, and if a soldier goes there on a mission, it is his body that comes back,” she said.<\/p>\n “We \u200bbeg him to fight against these bandits so that peace may reign in our country.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Benin’s finance minister Romuald Wadagni was expected to coast to victory in a presidential election on \u200bSunday, buoyed by strong economic growth and the absence of a credible challenger amid mounting fears over jihadist violence. President Patrice Talon, \u200cwho has ruled the West African nation since 2016 but is unable to seek a third term […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":20480,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":9,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","source_name":"Reuters","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2362,1129,27],"tags":[512,2140,389,4380],"class_list":["post-20479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-security","category-west-africa","tag-benin","tag-cotonou","tag-patrice-talon","tag-romuald-wadagni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20479"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20481,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20479\/revisions\/20481"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}