{"id":13351,"date":"2025-10-17T16:41:45","date_gmt":"2025-10-17T14:41:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jhb-webdevelopers\/channelafrica\/news\/benin-presidential-bid-of-agbodjo-in-jeopardy-after-sponsorship-withdrawn\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T16:26:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T14:26:20","slug":"benin-presidential-bid-of-agbodjo-in-jeopardy-after-sponsorship-withdrawn","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/benin-presidential-bid-of-agbodjo-in-jeopardy-after-sponsorship-withdrawn\/","title":{"rendered":"Benin presidential bid of Agbodjo in jeopardy after sponsorship withdrawn"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In Benin, the presidential candidacy of Renaud Agbodjo, put forward by the main opposition party Les D\u00e9mocrates, is facing uncertainty after a party deputy withdrew their support, raising the possibility that the Electoral Commission may reject his application.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, Deputy Michel Sodjinou announced that he was withdrawing his backing, criticising the nomination process as \u201copaque\u201d and \u201cimposed\u201d by a party leadership he described as authoritarian. He took the matter to the Cotonou court, which subsequently annulled his sponsorship.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This development threatens the presidential ticket of Agbodjo and Jude Lodjou, backed by the party of former President Yayi Boni. Without the necessary sponsorship, their application could be invalidated by the Independent National Electoral Commission.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Political commentator Aristide Kanoussou said \u201cthis decision could have serious implications for the opposition in Benin and may affect the credibility of the upcoming elections.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":13352,"template":"default||default","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-13351","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"In Benin, the presidential candidacy of Renaud Agbodjo, put forward by the main opposition party Les D\u00e9mocrates, is facing uncertainty||In Benin, the presidential candidacy of Renaud Agbodjo, put forward by the main opposition party Les D\u00e9mocrates, is facing uncertainty","published_date":"2025-10-17 18:39:43||2025-10-17 18:39:43","news_description":"In Benin, the presidential candidacy of Renaud Agbodjo, put forward by the main opposition party Les D\u00e9mocrates, is facing uncertainty||In Benin, the presidential candidacy of Renaud Agbodjo, put forward by the main opposition party Les D\u00e9mocrates, is facing uncertainty","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13351\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18513,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/13351\/revisions\/18513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=13351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}