Benin
Benin electoral process back on track

Misanet.com / IPS, 22 March - Benin's second round of voting today to choose a president is finally back on track after fourth place candidate Bruno Amoussou agreed to face off against Mathieu Kerekou, the current president. The process had come to a crashing halt after the runner-up and third place candidate in the first round, held on 4 March, withdrew from further rounds. 

In the first round, Kerekou received 45.42 percent of the votes against runner-up Nicephore Soglo's 27.12 percent. Charging that the voters' list was flawed, Soglo said he would not contest further rounds unless the problems were resolved. 

Soglo decried the fact that the National Autonomous Electoral Commission (CENA) and the Constitutional Court were operating from vastly different lists of electors. The Constitutional Court is the body charged with verifying the regularity of the elections and releasing the final results. 

The CENA announced that its list included 3,139,405 registered voters. The Constitutional Court however, said that after the necessary adjustments, said the total should have been 2,748,479. 

Initially, the Constitutional Court announced that Kerekou had captured 47.06 percent of the vote and Soglo, 28.94. The Court had eliminated some 300,000 votes. 

Soglo sent a letter to the Constitutional Court, asking that the discrepancies between the voters' lists be resolved prior to the second round. He also asked the Court to annul the first round because of the irregularities. 

But last week, the Court rejected these requests. On 16 March, just two days before the second round of voting was to be held, Soglo pulled out of the presidential race. 

According to the Beninese Constitution, if one of two second round candidates should withdraw from the race, the candidate with the next largest showing in the first round has the option of replacing him. 

Following Soglo's withdrawal, the Constitutional Court named Adrien Houngbedji, who came in third in the first round with 12.62 percent, his second round successor. But then Houngbedji, who is also president of the National Assembly, followed Soglo's lead and decided to pull out of the race for the same reasons.

- Nicephore Soglo's reasons for getting out haven't gone away, Houngbedji who had thrown his support behind Soglo for the second round, said. "The voters' lists have still not been reconciled. The massive fraud which has taken place will only be repeated. Under these conditions, the only real choice is to follow in Soglo's footsteps and withdraw," Houngbedji continued.

Bruno Amoussou, Kerekou's Minister of State, who came in fourth with 8.59 percent of the vote, will be Kerekou's legal rival in the second round, set for today, 22 March.

According to observers, Amoussou possesses almost no chance of winning as he had already called on his supporters to vote for Kerekou after the first round results were announced. Barring any new twists, Kerekou should handily carry the second round and win a mandate for a new five-year term as president.

By Nana Rosine Ngangoue, IPS 

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