2024-03-06 09:10:47
Deputies in the National Assembly approved the modification of the law relating to the Electoral Code in the Republic of Benin. Several new features have been included in the text.
Beninese parliamentarians examined and voted on the modification of the Electoral Code on the night of Tuesday, March 5, 2024. They had been invited to do so by a decision of the Constitutional Court with a view to restoring equality in sponsoring candidates for the presidential election of 2026. But the elected officials went beyond the instructions of the Constitutional Court to integrate new provisions into the text.
Reinforced conditions for participation in the presidential election
Thus, from now on, candidate pairs in the 2026 presidential election must be sponsored by 15% of deputies and/or mayors. Before the modification of the Electoral Code, this requirement was 10%.
From now on it will take 28 deputies and mayors to sponsor a candidate in the presidential election. The text also specifies that deputies and mayors can only sponsor candidates who are members or designated by the party which elected them.
New condition for distribution of seats in parliament
On another level, the amended text stated that only parties having obtained at least 20% of the votes cast nationally can claim a seat in the National Assembly. Previously, only 10% was required from political parties before participating in sharing seats in parliament.
At the end of the plenary, the National Assembly voted by 79 votes for, 28 against and one abstention, law 2024-13 modifying and supplementing law 2019-43 of November 15, 2019 establishing the Electoral Code in the Republic of Benin.
Fears of exclusion
It should be noted that the modification of the Electoral Code took place five days after a failed attempt to revise the Constitution which aimed to meet the requirement of the Constitutional Court.
Shortly before the debates in the National Assembly, civil society organizations united within the Electoral Platform of Civil Society Organizations published a press release asking to suspend the examination of the law.
Religious organizations coordinated by the Episcopal Conference of Benin had also expressed their fears regarding the integration of “provisions that could lead to exclusion”.
#Electoral #code #adopted #parliament