{"id":24008,"date":"2016-03-19T04:36:56","date_gmt":"2016-03-19T04:36:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/no-clear-favourite-as-benin-goes-for-runoff\/"},"modified":"2016-03-19T04:29:26","modified_gmt":"2016-03-19T04:29:26","slug":"no-clear-favourite-as-benin-goes-for-runoff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/no-clear-favourite-as-benin-goes-for-runoff\/","title":{"rendered":"No clear favourite as Benin goes for runoff"},"content":{"rendered":"

{Benin\u2019s presidential elections reach a climax on Sunday, when PM Lionel Zinsou takes on businessman Patrice Talon to succeed Thomas Boni Yayi in the country\u2019s top job.}<\/p>\n

Zinsou, the 61-year-old Franco-Beninese banker surprised everyone when he quit as head of one of Europe\u2019s biggest investment funds, PAI Partners, to become PM last June.<\/p>\n

Despite initial denials that he was Boni Yayi\u2019s appointed successor, he has since been endorsed as the candidate for the president\u2019s ruling Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin party.<\/p>\n

In the first round of voting on March 6, Zinsou beat Talon by a tight margin \u2014 27.11 per cent against 23.52 per cent \u2014 and has since seen 24 beaten candidates come out for his rival.<\/p>\n

Zinsou \u2014 a graduate of France\u2019s elite Ecole Normale \u2014 was a speechwriter for socialist PM Laurent Fabius in the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Since his appointment in Benin, he has swapped his tailored business suits for flowing robes and punctuates his rallies with expressions in the Fon language.<\/p>\n

He also regularly reminds voters of his political pedigree: his uncle, Emile-Derlin Zinsou, a former president.<\/p>\n

To critics who accuse him of knowing nothing about Benin, he has an answer: \u201cDespite my work in France, I have never stopped coming to Benin\u201d.<\/p>\n

His supporters highlight his successful career. For them, he is the man to develop impoverished Benin.<\/p>\n

MOST POWERFUL FIGURES<\/p>\n

Businessman Talon turned up to vote in the first round driving a Porsche, wearing a white open-necked shirt, a fitted suit and sunglasses.<\/p>\n

The image he portrays is of a big-spender and a self-made man, hoping for a break with the past in the country\u2019s politics.<\/p>\n

The well-known entrepreneur, who made his money in the key sector of cotton and running Cotonou\u2019s port, was one of the most powerful figures in Beninese business.<\/p>\n

But he became public enemy number one of Boni Yayi, whose successful presidential election campaigns he bankrolled in 2006 and 2011.<\/p>\n

In 2012, he was accused of being the brains behind a bizarre alleged plot to poison the president, then the following year of attempting to endanger the security of the state.<\/p>\n

At the time, Talon was being prosecuted in several embezzlement cases and fled to France. Boni Yayi pardoned him in May 2014, paving the way for his return and bid for election.<\/p>\n

Talon comes from modest origins in the coastal town of Ouidah. His father was a primary school teacher.<\/p>\n

His ethnicity \u2014 Fon \u2014 like the former president Nicephore Soglo has been seen as an advantage in his early career and since then he has maintained close links with power.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe decided to run for president following his return, perhaps as a way of protecting himself by becoming a major political figure rather than a rich but vulnerable businessman,\u201d said analyst Gilles Yabi from the Wathi West Africa think-tank.<\/p>\n

His success and taste for luxury have attracted support from many young Beninese.<\/p>\n

\"Prime<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

{Benin\u2019s presidential elections reach a climax on Sunday, when PM Lionel Zinsou takes on businessman Patrice Talon to succeed Thomas Boni Yayi in the country\u2019s top job.} Zinsou, the 61-year-old Franco-Beninese banker surprised everyone when he quit as head of one of Europe\u2019s biggest investment funds, PAI Partners, to become PM last June. Despite initial […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48],"tags":[100],"byline":[228],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-24008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-48","tag-africa","byline-afp"],"bylines":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"contributors":[{"id":228,"name":"AFP","slug":"afp","description":"Agence France-Presse is an international news agency headquartered in Paris. It is the oldest news agency in the world and one of the largest. ","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":71}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24008\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24008"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=24008"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=24008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}