Benin’s finance minister, Romuald Wadagni, was declared the winner of Sunday’s presidential election in a landslide, securing 94% of the vote in preliminary results based on more than 90% of ballots counted, the electoral commission (CENA) said on Monday.
Wadagni, 49, ran as the joint candidate of the Progressive Union Renewal (UPR) and the Republican Bloc (BR). He entered the race with the endorsement of outgoing President Patrice Talon—Benin’s wealthiest man—who was ineligible to run again after serving two five‑year terms.
As finance minister, Wadagni oversaw roughly a decade of strong economic performance, with growth averaging above 6% annually. His campaign focused on continuing that trajectory in a country often described as one of West Africa’s more stable democracies, despite a failed coup attempt in December 2025.
His only challenger, Paul Hounkpe, leader of the smaller FCBE party, conceded while votes were still being counted. In his statement Hounkpe congratulated Wadagni and appealed for mutual respect and a willingness to rise above partisan divisions as part of the democratic process.
CENA chief Sacca Lafia said the vote proceeded peacefully. Independent electoral monitors from a civil society platform, however, reported about 100 incident “alerts,” according to AFP, including some polling stations opening early and a few reports of ballot boxes appearing full before voting began. The ECOWAS observation mission commended the “peaceful atmosphere” and said the election generally ran smoothly.
Some 7.9 million people were registered to vote, and CENA put national turnout at 58.75%. Participation was markedly lower in the capital, Porto‑Novo, where turnout at some polling places was reported between 20% and 40%.
Analysts had cautioned before the vote that measures enacted during President Talon’s tenure had narrowed political space. The country’s largest opposition party, Les Démocrates, was absent from the ballot after constitutional changes last year and its poor showing in January’s legislative elections left it without seats. New rules requiring presidential hopefuls to obtain endorsements from National Assembly members meant Les Démocrates leader Renaud Agbodjo could not muster the necessary backing. The Africa Center for Strategic Studies had warned that those barriers left the 2026 contest with a “tilted playing field.”
Benin has experienced rapid economic expansion in recent years and rising tourism, boosted by infrastructure projects and its long coastline. Still, the nation of about 14.5 million people faces persistent challenges: a large wealth gap, an estimated poverty rate of just under 30% for those living on $3 a day or less, and complaints from many citizens that they have not felt the benefits of growth. Security concerns have grown as jihadist violence from the Sahel has spilled into northern parts of the country.
Edited by: Dmytro Hubenko