Elections in Benin: CENA postpones the announcement of the major trends to this Thursday

Originally expected this Wednesday, the publication of the major trends of the legislative elections in Benin has been postponed to this Thursday by the National Autonomous Electoral Commission (CENA). In the background, the strict application of the eligibility rules for seats, based on thresholds per constituency and the electoral quotient mechanism.

CENA had planned to announce on Wednesday the initial major trends from the vote. The electoral institution ultimately opted to postpone to Thursday, to allow time to finalize the necessary consolidations and apply all legal criteria for seat allocation. According to sources close to the process, the communication could take place on Thursday.

At the heart of the calculations is a central rule: only lists that have obtained at least 20% of the votes in each of the electoral constituencies can be eligible for seat allocation. It is therefore not a national threshold, but a condition to be met constituency by constituency.

This provision has direct implications for parties engaged outside a coalition. It is notably within this framework that the party Les Démocrates, which competes alone, operates. A non-coalition party that does not reach 20% in even a single constituency is excluded from the sharing of seats, even if it records good scores elsewhere on the country.

The specific case of electoral coalitions

Conversely, coalitions benefit from a more flexible regime. A party member of a coalition can be eligible even if it is weak in certain constituencies, provided that its partner reaches the 20% threshold there. This eligibility remains conditional on obtaining at least 10% of the national vote by the party concerned.

This mechanism aims to promote political regroupings while guaranteeing a minimum level of national representation.

Beyond the thresholds, the electoral quotient will come into play in the effective distribution of seats among the lists deemed eligible. This step, both technical and decisive, partly explains the additional delay taken by the CENA before publishing the trends.

Official proclamation expected no later than January 15

After the announcement of the major trends by the CENA, the final institutional step will fall to the Constitutional Court, the only body authorized to proclaim the definitive results. This official proclamation is expected no later than Thursday, January 15, 2026, in accordance with the electoral calendar.