10.2009 - Salomon Wantchoucou

Politics in Benin

France also profited in Africa by creating the so called "Colonie Francais" starting from 19th century, by which Dahomey was not excluded. During that time of oppression there were political groups fighting for their freedom for independence against the French administration.

Having no other means of information and of giving a political awareness to the indigenous citizens, newspapers were created and publications. The editors of the press, although they were hostile to the French colonial government, succeeded in creating an electoral commission in 1945 during the French constitutive assembly. The Reverends Père Aupiais and Sourou-Migan Apithy were successful to be elected and from there, the first political party of Dahomey was created in 1947: "l'Union Progressiste Dahoméenne" (UPD). Relating to that, another new party emerged, called "Bloc Populaire Africain", from (UPD). After a long political struggle, the independence came finally on 1. August 1960.

During the time of independence the elites, who had been hostile to the French colonial structure, were the ones to profit, taking charge of the political power in Dahomey in as much as continuing with the same colonial structures instead of creating their own political research institute favourable to the way of life and culture of the owners of the land, signing political agreements without a democratic vote from the owners of the land concerned and without analysing the impact or negative effect of some certain agreements signed.

This lead to political instability, to crises, to unrest after the independence, and was also followed by a lot of political overthrows. Finally they succeeded in creating a presidential council with Hubert Maga, Justin Ahomadégbé and Sourou-Migan Apithy as the heads of state in 1970.

The military used that opportunity to plan a military coup on 26 October 1972 directed by the former president. Marxism-Leninism system of government was proclaimed by the president in 1974 as a state ideology, followed by the creation of a one-party system in 1975. A party called "Parti de la Revolution Populaire du Benin (PRPB)".

The ideology adopted by the president contributed to hinder the economic development of the country as by that time the capitalist system was out of question and the ideology practiced by these states was not able to comprehend the world's monetary and capitalist system as it was supposed to be. The consequent economical and social crises at the same time provoked protests of the workers' and students' associations at the end of 1980. To prevent the country from getting into an inevitable crisis a national conference was held in 1990 where a lot of political rehabilitation was introduced including the introduction of a democratic multi-party system so as to be able to have a liberal economic system and at the same time the abolition of Marxism-Leninism was one of the priority. The so called elites used that opportunity to visualise the creation of political parties based on the 11 December 1990 constitutional referendum.

From 1990, a lot of political parties were created which could be estimated to amount up to 100-140 political parties, leading to inaccuracy in defining their political position and direction - although the so called "La nouvelle charte des partis politiques" was adopted in 2003 to define the rules and conditions for creating a political party.

The founding of a political party was structured in a way that the founder had to register at the ministry of interiors, security and decentralisation affairs as far as the required obligations were achieved by the founder.

In order to regulate the voting mechanism a commission was created, called "La commission electoral national autonomy (CENA)", which comprises 25 members of which 2 members are nominated by the president, 18 by the Parliament, 1 from the civil society, the other 4 from the administrative secretary of the commission. The budget of the commission is decided by the government.

It was formally the judicial representatives who mandated the electoral commission but as from 2005, after the revision of the electoral law, the commission should be mandated by the civil society and it was decided by the constitutional court.

For the possibility of the electoral commission on the local and community level, sub-commissions were created.

The constitutional court decides and supervises the electoral process, having to verify the result according to the constitutional law article 49.

The so called "La Haute Autorite de l' Audiovisuel et de la Communication (HAAC)" is for the balance of the political parties to the media.

The political parties were now created, of which more than 100 were in existence, for a country with a population of less than 8 million. The big public festival ((or: the big party??)) and the parties in competition with one another in seek of power whereas the small political parties hold resistance in the local and communal government playing a great fundamental role during election. A party having a member in the parliament is one of the objectives of the small political parties. However being unable to achieve that, they are forced to form alliances. The consequences of forming these alliances contribute to reduce the chances of a bigger political party to be itself alone in power during the presidential election. So to determine which political party is small or big depends on how many representatives the party has in the parliament at large like for example the big political parties could be classified as follows:

a. from the north "Le Front d'Action pour le Renouveau du pays et le Developpement - Alafia ( FARD-Alafia)"
b. from the south-west "Le Partis Social democrate (PSD)" dominated the Mnon- Couffo region
c. from the south-east "Le Partis du Renouveau Democratique (PRD)" dominated the Oueme region
d. from Plateau "Mouvement Africain pour la Democratie et le progres (MADEP)"
e. from the south " Renaissance du Benin" (RB) dominates Cotonou

They are the major political parties that have most representatives in the parliament of 83 seats since
1991-1995 first Legislative election
1995-1999 second Legislative election
1999-2003 third Legislative election
2003-2007 fourth Legislative election

As they are elected into the parliament, they have to be under the political system, whereby the Republic of Benin practices a semi-presidential system of government. According to the constitutional law of 11.12.1990, the president elects his ministers. That means a parliamentarian and presidential principle.

Parliamentary groups have been formed in form of some coalitions because according to the law there must be 9 representatives so as to be able to form a parliamentary group.

Critics:

While Benin is known to be a democratic land with a multi-party system, however the multi-party system is insufficient to generate accurate democracy because of the diversification, political parties being elected into parliament with no appropriate opposition party, as you could see in the third legislature of 2007 election.

It leads to no appropriate political direction to which the country should lay emphasis on, and at the same time brought confusion to the owners of the land (voters), for the political situation has not been appropriately explained to them so that the voters may understand which party is right wing and left wing, which party is liberal, what are their directions to move the country forward, to ameliorate the standard of living and its developments.

The use of political convincing and arguments to gain more votes is not the matter but the use of bank notes as a form of gift to convince voters is inappropriate.

The electoral commission CENA was appointed only by one person from the civil society and the rest from the parliamentarians and this could contribute to corruptions and irregularities, conflicts because the actual Parliament was dominated by the party called "le partis de la mouvance présidentielle".

Benin's political atmosphere was based on their own personal interest instead of the interest of the nation as a priority. This contributed to create the inability of the national assembly to emphasise its accurate position in debates and policies etc.

Coming to the executive form we found out that the president and its appointed ministers were in position to execute an appropriate budget in view of the developments of the country including executions to eradicate poverty etc.

These ministers with their institutions were not doing enough of their duty in as much as to coordinate an appropriate structure and infrastructure from the community level. Corruptions and the inability to lay down a well defined statistics, organisation and planning starting from the community level contribute to hinder the development of the country.

The self interest in the place of general interest should not be factored out as one of the fundamental factors of a bad government.

A high percentage of land owners of the African population lives in poverty, although the Africans have great agricultural resources. Sicknesses without appropriate medical facilities were left alone immensely, no appropriate basic infrastructure was organised. The rural community developments should be intensified instead of the national development. Projects of agricultural programmes, projects of employment programmes should be intensified in the rural communities, research institutions, social institutions.

The national data system should be developed starting from the community government, an appropriate tax system was not in function, statistics.

Judiciary revolution in order to use the independence of the judicial institution to create a state under the law and make the law known to the community public is not the case in Benin. Family politics have to be developed in which the intensification of the family scheme project ((??)) should be put in consideration. Economic scheme projects should be directed to the communal government. Cultural development schemes, educational support programmes should be one of the priorities of the state starting from the communal government.

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