Benin holds presidential election four months after failed coup

As president Patrice Talon steps down after a decade, the west African country’s finance minister is favourite to win

This Sunday, just four months after a failed coup, Benin heads to the polls for a presidential election that feels more like a coronation than a contest.

Patrice Talon, the businessman turned politician who has been president since 2016, is ineligible to run again after serving two five-year terms.

The winner of Sunday’s election will have the chance to run for two seven-year terms instead, after a controversial constitutional amendment elongated presidential tenures.

Romuald Wadagni, the country’s finance minister who emerged as the ruling coalition’s candidate without any primaries, is overwhelmingly the favourite to win this weekend.