Benin\u2019s opposition party Les D\u00e9mocrates has been ruled out of the April 2026 presidential election after the Constitutional Court rejected its appeal against the electoral commission.<\/p>\n
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In a decision handed down on Monday, October 27, the court dismissed a petition lodged by the party of former President Thomas Boni Yayi, who had challenged the handling of the sponsorship process by the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENA). Judges ruled that the commission had \u201cneither violated the Constitution nor the Electoral Code\u201d in dealing with the sponsorship of opposition member of parliament Michel Sodjinou.<\/p>\n
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The verdict effectively prevents Les D\u00e9mocrates from taking part in next year\u2019s poll, heightening tensions between the opposition and President Patrice Talon\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n
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The ruling comes just days after Talon and Boni Yayi met in Cotonou for direct talks aimed at easing the country\u2019s political rift.<\/p>\n
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Political commentator Aristide Kanoussou said that the court\u2019s decision highlights the \u201cfragility of Benin\u2019s democratic process.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u201cThis isn\u2019t just a legal matter; it is a deep lack of trust between the ruling elite and the opposition,\u201d Kanoussou said. \u201cThe meeting between Talon and Boni Yayi was encouraging, but dialogue alone won\u2019t be enough if parts of the opposition remain excluded from the electoral process.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Once praised as one of West Africa\u2019s most stable democracies, Benin has in recent years faced criticism over restrictions on political participation and the shrinking space for dissent.<\/p>\n
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Les D\u00e9mocrates has yet to announce how it plans to respond to the court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n
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–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":14013,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-14012","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Benin\u2019s opposition party Les D\u00e9mocrates has been ruled out of the April 2026 presidential election","published_date":"2025-10-29 07:08:48","news_description":"Benin\u2019s opposition party Les D\u00e9mocrates has been ruled out of the April 2026 presidential election","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14012","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\/14012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18868,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/14012\/revisions\/18868"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=14012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}