In Benin, the National Autonomous Electoral Commission (CENA) announced the provisional results of the January 11, 2026 legislative elections on Saturday evening, January 17. Two political parties from the ruling coalition emerged victorious: the Progressive Union (UPR), with 41.15% of the vote, and the Republican Bloc (BR), with 36.64%. The UPR secured 60 seats in Parliament, and the BR, 49.

The Democrats will not be seated in Parliament

This is a real coup for his Siamese twins in the movement, who have managed to meet the challenge posed by the new Electoral Code. Indeed, according to this Code, each political party had to gather 20% of the votes cast in each of Benin's 24 electoral districts to be eligible for a share of parliamentary seats.

The opposition party Les Démocrates failed to meet this challenge and will therefore not be represented in parliament. Other political parties, such as Moele-Bénin and FCBE, which had signed parliamentary agreements with the BR and UPR, also failed to secure seats. They were unable to obtain the 10% of votes required by the Electoral Code for a parliamentary coalition.

A low participation rate

The main takeaway from this legislative election is that there will be no opposition members in the next National Assembly.

The people of Benin will once again experience a single-party parliament, as was the case during the 8th legislature.

It should also be noted that the voter turnout for this legislative election was 36.73%. Of the 7,834,608 registered voters, only 2,877,773 cast their ballots.