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Vol 57 No 7

Published 1st April 2016


Benin

The shoo-in is booed off

The voters knew what they didn't want – the old President's placeman. But do they know what they are getting instead?

The winner of the presidential election, business tycoon Patrice Talon, remains a cipher as the impact of his unexpected victory sinks in and the public wonders what changes he may bring. He was elected on the strength of not being a puppet of the discredited former President, Thomas Yayi Boni, which was how the losing candidate, Lionel Zinsou, was perceived. Notching up only a marginal first-round lead of around 4%, Talon crushed Zinsou in the 20 March run-off, the favourite scoring barely 30% of the vote.

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