Patrice Talon: gets 24.8% of the votes

Benin’s Sunday election ended up in stalemate, provisional results released by the electoral commission today showed.

Benin’s Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou, highly favoured to succeed President Thomas Boni Yayi, won 856, 218 votes, representing 28.4 per cent of the votes.

He will now face a run-off against businessman Patrice Talon in a second round of presidential elections. Talon got 24.8 per cent of the votes,which was 746,798 votes.

Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou : No outright win

Zinsou and Talon will now have to compete for the support of the candidates who came third and below. The date for the run-off was not announced.

The provisional results, released by electoral commission, must be confirmed by the constitutional court and a challenge by one of the candidates appeared possible, not least because Sebastien Ajavon won 23.03 percent to finish just behind Talon. Ajavon got 693, 492 votes.

Abdoulaye Tchane had 8.79 per cent, 264,515 votes to place fourth, while Pascal Irene-Koupaki was fifth with 5.85 per cent 176,286 votes.

There were 33 candidates, including two women, who contested the first round of the election last Sunday to replace President Thomas Boni Yayi, who is ending his two terms in office.

Benin’s 33 presidential candidates

Boni Yayi’s decision to step down is in contrast to leaders in countries such as Burundi, Rwanda and the Congo Republic, who have changed their countries’ constitutions to pave the way for a third term.