{"id":41832,"date":"2026-08-07T16:00:56","date_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:00:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=41832"},"modified":"2026-08-07T16:00:56","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T14:00:56","slug":"former-benin-president-elected-head-of-new-senate","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/former-benin-president-elected-head-of-new-senate\/","title":{"rendered":"Former Benin President elected head of new Senate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Former Beninese President Patrice Talon has been elected as the pioneer President of Benin&#8217;s newly created Senate, securing 24 of the 25 votes cast, with one abstention.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Talon will lead the 25-member upper legislative house for a five-year mandate following the inaugural vote on Thursday.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The establishment of the Senate marks a significant shift in Benin\u2019s governance structure, following a constitutional amendment in December 2025 that transformed the country&#8217;s parliament into a bicameral legislature.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In his inaugural speech, Talon assured members of his dedication to steering the institution effectively, expressing his commitment to fostering a collaborative legislative environment.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>His election to head the upper house represents a new chapter in his political career following his tenure as head of state.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&#8211;ChannelAfrica&#8211;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":22271,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[26],"class_list":["post-41832","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Benin elects former President to head newly created Senate","published_date":"2026-08-07 16:00:04","news_description":"Benin elects former President to head newly created Senate","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41832","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\/41832\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41835,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/41832\/revisions\/41835"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41832"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=41832"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}