Voters in this small West African nation lined up at schools and under trees Sunday to choose a new leader among 26 hopefuls running in the first presidential race in three decades to exclude Benin’s two most powerful politicians.
President Mathieu Kerekou, 73, who has ruled for all but five years since first taking power in a 1972 coup, could not seek re-election because the constitution bars candidates over 70. That also kept his longtime opposition rival, Nicephore Soglo, 72, off the ballot.
Some of the nations’ 17,480 polling stations stayed open past closing time because materials or electoral workers showed up late, but no serious problems were reported. Electoral officials said results could be released within several days.
With the two longtime rivals out of the race, there was no heir apparent in an impoverished country desperate for a fresh face to ease unemployment and revive a sagging agricultural-based economy.
Among the favorites: Soglo’s son, Lehadi Soglo; former Prime Minister Adrien Houngbedji, who placed a distant third in the last two presidential votes; former national assembly president Bruno Amoussou, who was previously Kerekou’s minister of state; and Yayi Boni, former head of the West African Development Bank.
Two women also were running: Marie Elise Gbedo, a lawyer who tried for the presidency in 2001, and Celestine Zanou, a former top aide to Kerekou.
The victor must win at least 50 percent of the vote to avoid a runoff. If there was no clear victor, the runoff would take place 15 days after final results from the first round are announced.
The United Nations ranks Benin near the bottom of its quality of life Human Development Index -- 161 out of 177 nations surveyed. Only 40 percent of Benin’s adults are literate and only about half of school-aged children are enrolled in school. Per capita income is about $3 a day.
About 4 million of Benin’s nearly 7 million people were registered to vote. Turnout was expected to be higher than in previous ballots, which were effectively two-way races between Kerekou and Soglo.
Kerekou took power in a this former French colony in a 1972 coup, leading a Marxist regime for nearly two decades.
After the end of the Cold War, Kerekou oversaw West Africa’s first peaceful and democratic transfer of power in 1991, holding elections and losing to Soglo.
Kerekou won the office back five years later, and emerged victorious again in the last presidential ballot in 2001, which the opposition charged was fraudulent.
