Benin police surrounds ex-president home

AFP/Cotonou

Police in Benin on Wednesday surrounded the home of ex-president Thomas Boni Yayi who led calls for an election boycott, hours after initial results showed a record low turnout in the polls. Twenty policemen were posted around the property belonging to Boni Yayi, who led the West African nation for a decade until stepping down after his second term in 2016, according to an AFP reporter.

Opposition leaders, barred from fielding any candidates for the parliamentary elections on Sunday, went to the former president’s home to show their support. Many citizens heeded opposition party calls to boycott the polls, with over three-quarters of the five million registered voters staying away. All candidates contesting the April 28 vote came from just two parties, the Republican Bloc and the Progressive Union, both allied to President Patrice Talon. Late on Tuesday, the election commission chairman Emmanuel Tiando announced that 22.99 percent of registered voters had cast ballots, according to preliminary results. Turnout has never dropped below 50 percent since the country’s transition to democracy in 1990.