Benin’s President Patrice Talon wins re-election with 86%

Electoral commission announces preliminary results of April 11 vote, says turnout stood at a little over 50 percent.

Benin’s electoral commission has declared incumbent Patrice Talon the winner of the country’s presidential election with 86 percent of the votes in the first round of a ballot boycotted by some opposition parties. Talon, a cotton tycoon first elected in 2016, faced two rivals in Sunday’s poll, with most of his key opponents in exile or disqualified from running. His opponents, Alassane Soumanou and Corentin Kohoue, got 11.29 and 2.25 percent respectively, according to provisional results announced by the commission on Tuesday. Turnout was about 50.17 percent.