Government candidate Wadagni on course to win Benin presidential vote 

Benin’s government-backed candidate, Romuald Wadagni, is on course to win the country’s presidential election after the sole opponent conceded defeat.

Paul Hounkpe of the Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin party acknowledged his defeat in a television statement carried by local broadcasters on Monday.

“To… Romuald Wadagni, I offer my republican congratulations. Democracy requires mutual respect and the ability to rise above partisan divides,” Hounkpe said in his concession statement, according to the AFP news agency.

Wadagni, who serves as the minister of foreign affairs, is the chosen successor of President Patrice Talon and the country’s governing coalition.

Talon is stepping down after completing two full five-year terms.

The elections come four months after Benin’s government was rocked by a coup attempt, which was put down by security forces with the assistance of Nigerian troops.

Nearly 8 million voters were eligible to cast ballots, but early voting was slow, according to Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris, reporting from a polling station in the port city of Cotonou.

Hounkpe’s campaign had sought to highlight how high-profile tourism projects and impressive gross domestic product (GDP) growth – at 7.5 percent in 2024 – had not sufficiently improved peoples’ lives.

Wadagni, meanwhile, promised to deliver on issues including access to water, wider social security programmes, and better access to healthcare.

The finance minister was the favourite to win the election after the country’s main opposition party, the Democrats, failed to put forward a candidate and refused to back Hounkpe.

Benin’s governing coalition holds every parliamentary seat after the Democrats failed to win 20 percent of the vote in the January 2026 elections, the threshold needed to enter the National Assembly. The Democrats won about 16 percent.

The incoming president faces serious security issues in the north of the country and challenges to living standards.

An armed rebellion from al-Qaeda affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) produces regular violence. An attack by JNIM on a military post last year killed 54 soldiers. A further 15 were killed in March.

The Sahel is among the world’s most unstable regions, further stressed by a series of coups in recent years in Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali, and other states.

Meanwhile, Benin’s poverty rate is estimated at above 30 percent. Many complain that the benefits of economic growth over the past decade have not trickled down.