Legislative and municipal elections 2026: more voters participated in the legislative elections

On the day after the dual parliamentary and municipal elections held on Sunday, January 11, 2026, the Electoral Platform of Civil Society Organizations (PEOSC) issued initial observations highlighting a notable difference in turnout between the two elections.

The electoral monitoring mission, which analyzed data from 1,026 polling stations for the municipal elections and 1,004 for the parliamentary elections, notes that voters expressed an overall preference for the parliamentary elections.

In a statement released on Monday, January 12, 2026, the president of PEOSC, Fatoumatou Batoko Zossou, explained that the provisional figures available to the platform show a clear gap in turnout in favor of the parliamentary elections.

This difference is also evident in the variability of turnout rates across the country’s departments, reflecting distinct local dynamics.

The platform notes that its analysis remains preliminary, because some delays observed in the opening of polling stations have made data processing and validation more complex. Work is ongoing, and the final, complete results will be published later through the appropriate institutional channels.

In partisan terms, five political formations were engaged in the legislative election: l’Union progressiste le Renouveau (UP-R), the Bloc républicain (BR), Forces Cauris pour un Bénin émergent (FCBE), Les Démocrates (LD) and Moele-Bénin. For the municipal elections, only three of these formations: the FCBE, the UP-R and the BR were in the running for the renewal of the municipal councils.

This gap in participation, already noticeable to observers, could reflect voters’ greater interest in the national issues embodied by the National Assembly, compared with local elections, where the political offering was more limited.