Just months after stepping down as president, Patrice Talon is back in a top leadership role in Benin.
On Thursday, Talon was elected as the country’s first-ever senate president. The vote was held behind closed doors through a secret ballot, and he secured 24 of the 25 votes cast. One ballot was left blank. He will serve a five-year term at the head of the newly created upper chamber.
Talon’s return was widely expected. Last November, while still in office, he approved a constitutional reform to establish the senate. His administration argued the new chamber would help improve political stability in the West African nation.
Benin held presidential elections in April. Romuald Wadagni, who was finance minister at the time, won by a landslide with more than 94 percent of the vote.
In his farewell remarks, Talon said he was “leaving office with the feeling of having given my best, of having led the country to take some steps forward in all areas.”
Former president Thomas Boni Yayi, who leads the opposition party Les Démocrates du Bénin, initially showed interest in contesting the senate president position. But because members of the new senate are appointed rather than elected, Yayi did not have enough backing and later decided not to run.
Talon described the senate as a “chamber of wisdom, counsel, conciliation, and appeasement,” adding that it would be a mistake for him not to serve in it.
The creation of the senate marks a major shift in Benin’s political structure, and Talon’s election puts a familiar figure at its center.
