Abubakar Hashim
Benin’s constitutional court, the body officially responsible for announcing the validity of election results, has announced Finance Minister Romuald Wadagne of the ruling party as the winner of the April 12 presidential elections.
Wadagne polled 94.27% votes cast, defeating leading opposition candidate and former culture minister, Paul Hounkpe, with 5.73% votes.
As this magazine wrote earlier, like Liberia, Senegal, and Ghana, Benin, on Wednesday, 15 April, also demonstrated electoral decorum, as the leading opposition presidential candidate, Hounkpe, called to congratulate Finance Minister and the ruling party’s presidential candidate, Wadagne, even before the final declaration of results.
ECOWAS has succeeded in its mission for a smooth democratic transition.
In a 15-page preliminary declaration, read by its head of delegation, former Ghanaian President, Nana Akufo-Addo, in Cotonou on April 14, 2026, he encouraged the authorities and political actors to continue promoting national cohesion and unity in order to strengthen democratic norms.
Former Benin President, Patrice Talon, had ruled for 10 years and recently survived an attempted military coup to topple his government.
West Africa has been named by the international community as the “coup belt” region of Africa. There have been six coups since 2020.
Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, all currently under military governments, have exited ECOWAS.
The new peaceful democratic transition in Benin, alongside the recent one in neighbouring Guinea, is another victory for ECOWAS, which sent a strong 250-member electoral delegation to Benin to ensure a smooth transition to democracy.
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