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COTONOU, Benin – Hours after polling stations closed across the West African nation of Benin on Sunday, election officials have begun tallying ballots for the first round of the country’s 2026 presidential election, according to on-the-ground observations from Xinhua News Agency in Cotonou, Benin’s economic hub.

All 16,000+ polling stations opened punctually at 7 a.m. local time and wrapped up voting operations by 4 p.m., triggering the immediate start of the counting process as outlined in Benin’s electoral regulations. Sacca Lafia, president of Benin’s Autonomous National Electoral Commission (ANEC), the independent body overseeing the nation’s elections, confirmed that preliminary general results trends will be released to the public within 48 hours of polling station closure.

Nearly 7.9 million registered voters were eligible to cast ballots in this election, which will select a new head of state to succeed outgoing President Patrice Talon, whose five-year term is set to conclude on May 23. Under Benin’s constitution, the president and vice president are elected via direct universal suffrage to serve a single seven-year term.

Just two candidate tickets are contesting the top office this cycle. The ruling coalition’s ticket is led by incumbent Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, with running mate Mariam Chabi Talata, the current vice president of Benin’s National Assembly. Challenging them is the opposition ticket from Cowry Forces for an Emerging Benin, headlined by party leader Paul Hounkpe and his running mate Rock Hounwanou.

Wadagni has centered his campaign on his track record over the past decade leading Benin’s finance ministry, highlighting the country’s consistent economic expansion under his oversight. Benin posted 7% gross domestic product growth in 2025, cementing its position as one of West Africa’s most stable and high-performing economies. If no candidate earns an absolute majority of valid votes in Sunday’s first round, a runoff election between the top two finishers will be held on May 10.

Reports from polling stations across Cotonou and its surrounding suburbs, visited by Xinhua correspondents, confirm that voting proceeded without major incidents, unfolding smoothly and peacefully across all monitored sites. Armand Bognon, a representative of a local civil society observer platform that deployed 1,721 independent observers nationwide – 1,200 assigned to fixed polling posts and 521 mobile monitors to cross-check multiple locations – confirmed that voting operations launched on time across every region of the country.

While the process remained orderly, voter turnout was relatively low through the morning and midday hours, with many voters arriving later in the day than expected. Multiple polling stations reported moderate attendance throughout the day, with a number of electors opting to attend Sunday religious services before casting their ballots.

Outgoing President Talon cast his own vote at a Cotonou polling station, and spoke to reporters after voting, expressing broad satisfaction with the calm, collaborative atmosphere that marked the election. “Since late last year, we have completed a full cycle of electoral processes to renew the country’s political leadership across legislative, municipal and now presidential levels,” Talon said. “What I have observed is not just an extraordinary atmosphere, but one marked by fraternity and conviviality.”

He added, “This gives us confidence that Benin is evolving and reaching a new stage in its history. Whoever wins this election will take the country even further. For me, the best is yet to come for Benin.”

Provisional electoral results from Benin confirm a landslide win for incumbent Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni in the country’s 2026 presidential election, capping a race shaped by widespread expectations of victory and the absence of a credible opposition challenger. According to the national electoral commission, with 90% of all ballots processed, Wadagni has captured over 94% of the vote, a margin large enough that the final outcome is described as irreversible.

At 49 years old, Wadagni entered the race as the clear favorite after Benin’s main opposition bloc, the Democrats, was barred from fielding a candidate. Under Benin’s electoral rules, all presidential hopefuls must secure formal sponsorship from a minimum number of sitting elected officials to appear on the ballot. The Democrats’ nominee failed to meet this requirement, leaving only independent candidate Paul Hounkpè as Wadagni’s formal competitor. Hounkpè conceded the race early on Monday, even before vote counting concluded, and publicly congratulated Wadagni on his projected win. In his concession statement, Hounkpè emphasized that democratic governance relies on mutual respect and a willingness to transcend partisan divides.

Wadagni was handpicked as the ruling party’s candidate by outgoing two-term president Patrice Talon, who was constitutionally ineligible to run for a third term in office. Preliminary official data puts national voter turnout at 58.75%, a figure that comes amid widespread public perception that the election was little more than a procedural formality, given the lack of a major opposition contender.

Despite being widely regarded as one of West Africa’s most stable democracies in a region that has seen a string of military coups in recent years, Benin now faces pressing challenges that the incoming president will be forced to address immediately. Foremost among these is worsening insecurity linked to jihadi insurgency in the country’s northern regions. Last April, an attack claimed by JNIM, an al-Qaeda-affiliated extremist group, killed 54 Beninese soldiers, and a similar strike just one month before the election claimed 15 more military lives. The deteriorating security crisis was also cited as a core justification by soldiers who staged an attempted coup in Benin just four months prior to the election. Beyond security, Wadagni will also need to tackle the country’s long-standing issue of chronic poverty, which disproportionately impacts communities in northern Benin. The country of 15 million people will swear in its new president following the formal validation of the election results by national authorities.

On Sunday, South Africa’s main opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) ushered in a new political chapter with the election of 39-year-old Geordin Hill-Lewis as its national leader, tasking him with solving a decades-old impasse that stumped all three of his immediate predecessors: breaking the party’s longtime reliance on narrow core support drawn primarily from white voters and other racial minority groups.

Nearly 30 years after the formal end of apartheid in 1994 and the birth of South Africa’s multiracial “Rainbow Nation” project, deep racial fault lines still shape the country’s political landscape. For the DA to eventually claim national power, Hill-Lewis — who succeeded outgoing leader John Steenhuisen — must build bridges across these divides and win meaningful support from the country’s Black majority, who make up roughly 80% of the total population.

Since the 2014 general election, the DA’s national vote share has stagnated at roughly 20%. The 2024 national election marked a major political shift, as long-ruling African National Congress (ANC) saw its support drop below 50% for the first time since the end of apartheid, forcing the party into a fragile national coalition government that includes the DA and eight smaller political parties. However, the DA’s entry into national power masked its persistent demographic gap: the party still only secured just under 22% of the national vote.

Hill-Lewis has openly acknowledged the party’s trust deficit with majority Black voters. In an interview with public broadcaster SABC on Monday following his election, he emphasized that closing this trust gap would be his top priority. Speaking to reporters shortly after, he made clear that winning the confidence of more Black South Africans would be a “main focus of mine.”

The new DA leadership ticket offers a notable shift from previous iterations: Hill-Lewis was elected alongside senior Black politicians including Gauteng provincial party leader Solly Msimanga, Siviwe Gwarube and Solly Malatsi, creating what Hill-Lewis described as “by far the most diverse and young group of leaders the DA has had in its history.” Notably, Gwarube is the only woman to secure a senior leadership position, leaving significant gender imbalance unaddressed in the new party hierarchy.

This push for greater racial diversity comes after a high-profile failed effort a decade prior. The party’s first Black leader, Mmusi Maimane, resigned from his post in 2019 after just four years in office, claiming the DA was “not the vehicle best suited to take forward the vision of building” a united South Africa.

Hill-Lewis argued that longstanding rigid racial political silos in South Africa are beginning to fracture, a trend he called encouraging. On policy, the new leader has not yet released a new policy platform designed to broaden the party’s base, but he has signaled he will double down on messaging around government competence and addressing South Africa’s crippling crime crisis. He also clarified the DA’s stance on the ANC’s flagship Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) policy: the party remains opposed to the current framework, but is committed to demonstrating it is genuinely invested in advancing the economic interests of Black South Africans.

Political observers have framed the new leadership lineup as a promising turning point for the DA. Dr Levy Ndou, a political analyst, noted that Hill-Lewis’ election alongside a cohort of young, diverse leaders “ushers in a new era” and could prove to be a “very good thing” for the party. Ndou added that while race has always been a defining challenge for the DA, the new leadership slate finally “resembles a party that is multiracial.”

A notable break from his predecessor’s path, Hill-Lewis — who currently serves as mayor of Cape Town — has chosen not to accept a cabinet position in the current ANC-led coalition government, opting to retain his local government post. This unusual positioning puts him in a unique political position: he must navigate the DA’s fraught working relationship with the ANC in national government while leading the party into upcoming local government elections, expected to take place between late 2026 and early 2027, where the DA will campaign directly against the ANC across much of the country.

The DA has long been a fierce critic of the ANC on economic and foreign policy, and the uneasy national coalition has already faced multiple major hurdles, though both parties have so far managed to maintain the power-sharing arrangement.

A veteran of DA politics who joined the party at just 18 years old, Hill-Lewis has been groomed for top leadership within the organization for nearly two decades. Fellow political analyst Sandile Swana described him as a product of the DA’s internal leadership pipeline. Hill-Lewis first made political history in 2011, when he was elected to parliament at 24, becoming the youngest lawmaker in South Africa at the time. A decade later, he again made history when he was elected as Cape Town’s youngest ever mayor.

While he has ruled out a cabinet post for himself, Hill-Lewis made clear he intends to maintain strict oversight of DA politicians serving in the coalition cabinet, announcing that performance reviews will be carried out in the coming months. “No-one is entitled to any office or position. It must be earned through performance,” he said, adding that leadership changes will be made if performance does not meet expectations.

At London’s Southwark Crown Court this week, 65-year-old former Nigerian oil minister Diezani Alison-Madueke has issued a categorical denial of all bribery charges against her, pushing back against prosecution claims that she accepted luxury gifts and funded stays in high-end UK properties in exchange for awarding lucrative government oil contracts.

Prosecutors allege that a group of Nigerian businessmen covered millions of pounds in lavish spending for Alison-Madueke, including more than £2 million in purchases at London’s iconic luxury department store Harrods, and £4.6 million in renovation works for multiple upscale properties across London and Buckinghamshire. The charges outline that the ex-minister gained access to a grand countryside estate in Buckinghamshire, a £2.8 million private residence in central London’s Marylebone, and multiple multi-million-pound properties overlooking Regent’s Park, all funded by business figures seeking favorable contract decisions from her office.

But in her testimony to the court on Monday, Alison-Madueke said that all costs incurred during her official stays in the UK were ultimately reimbursed by Nigeria’s state-owned national oil corporation, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC). She explained that NNPC’s disjointed financial system prompted the creation of a dedicated London-based service firm to handle logistics for her official work in the UK, covering routine costs such as hotel accommodation and chauffeured transport.

“I can state categorically that at no point did I ask for, take or receive a bribe of any sort from these persons and did not abuse my office,” Alison-Madueke told the court. “I always sought to act impartially.”

The court heard context for Alison-Madueke’s stays in UK properties: one 2011 Christmas stay at a Gerrards Cross, Buckinghamshire home was arranged after her ex-husband required emergency hospital treatment that prevented the pair from flying back to Nigeria, and the ex-minister said she played no role in booking the accommodation. A second two-week stay at the same property was for a work project: Alison-Madueke and 10 to 12 other Nigerian officials gathered there to compile a book highlighting the Nigerian president’s work advancing women’s issues in the country. She added that the Regent’s Park property was repurposed for confidential official meetings, while another property cited in the charges was fully gutted for renovations and uninhabitable when she visited it.

Regarding past stays at two St John’s Wood apartments, where rent was covered by Nigerian businessman Kolawole Aluko (one of the business figures linked to the case who is not standing trial), Alison-Madueke noted that the arrangement was far more cost-effective than continuing to book £2,000-per-night suites at luxury London hotels such as The Savoy and The Dorchester. She also told the court she had no knowledge at the time that one of her chauffeurs had delivered £100,000 in cash to an address linked to her, stressing the sum was unrelated to her work or personal affairs.

The trial also heard details of Alison-Madueke’s early career, which saw her rise quickly through the ranks at oil giant Shell to become the first female senior executive in the company’s Nigerian operation. She told the court she had originally been reluctant to join Shell, after her father — a senior company employee and tribal leader — launched an unsuccessful legal case against the multinational over what he described as apartheid-style employment practices in West Africa. Alison-Madueke added that even when she took on the role, she remained critical of Shell’s response to devastating oil spills in her home region of the Niger Delta, saying the company had failed to adequately repair the environmental damage it caused.

Alison-Madueke also outlined the extreme personal risks she faced as a woman leading Nigeria’s oil sector in what she described as a deeply patriarchal society. She told the court she faced constant credible kidnap threats, and that members of her own family had already been abducted by extremist groups. Beyond her role as Nigerian oil minister, Alison-Madueke made history in 2015 when she became the first woman elected to lead the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), the global cartel that coordinates crude oil production levels to influence global energy markets.

Alison-Madueke currently faces five counts of accepting bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery, all of which she denies. Two other defendants are also on trial alongside her: 54-year-old oil industry executive Olatimbo Ayinde, who denies one count of bribery and one count of bribing a foreign public official, and 69-year-old Doye Agama, Alison-Madueke’s brother and a former archbishop, who denies a single charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. The trial is ongoing at Southwark Crown Court.

LONDON – In a high-stakes corruption trial unfolding at London’s Southwark Crown Court, 65-year-old Diezani Alison-Madueke, the former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, has issued a categorical denial of all bribery and conspiracy charges brought against her, pushing back against allegations that she accepted lavish, undeclared perks in exchange for preferential government energy contracts between 2010 and 2015.

Prosecutors from the UK’s law enforcement bodies have laid out six total charges against Alison-Madueke: five counts of accepting improper bribes and one count of conspiracy to commit bribery. The prosecution’s case claims that energy firms seeking favorable contract awards from Nigeria’s federal government covered all costs for multi-million-pound luxury residences in the UK, including paying for extensive renovations and furnishings for the properties that Alison-Madueke occupied rent-free.

Beyond free luxury housing, the prosecution alleges the former minister received a suite of other undeclared benefits, including unlimited access to private jets for travel, a permanent chauffeured vehicle, and funded high-end shopping sprees across London. Court documents outline that more than £2 million ($2.7 million) was spent on purchases at Harrods, the iconic Knightsbridge luxury department store, with hundreds of thousands more spent at a high-end antiques dealership and a premium homeware boutique in London’s upscale Mayfair district. Prosecutors also add that Alison-Madueke accepted £100,000 in undisclosed cash payments during her tenure leading Nigeria’s petroleum ministry, a role that gave her direct oversight over Nigeria’s state-owned energy giant, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), as well as its key subsidiaries the Nigerian Petroleum Development Company and Pipelines Product Marketing Company.

Two additional co-defendants are standing trial alongside Alison-Madueke: 54-year-old Olatimbo Ayinde, a Nigerian oil company owner facing two separate bribery charges, and 69-year-old Doye Agama, Alison-Madueke’s brother and a retired archbishop, who denies a single charge of conspiracy to commit bribery. Both have pleaded not guilty to all allegations against them.

Taking the witness stand on Monday, Alison-Madueke firmly rejected every claim put forward by the prosecution. “I did not abuse my office during that period,” she told the court. “I can state categorically at no time did I ask for, take, or seek a bribe or bribes of any sort from any of these persons.”

Addressing the allegations of uncompensated luxury services, the former minister explained that all logistics and financial arrangements for her official work trips to the UK were managed directly by NNPC, and insisted that every benefit arranged for her during these visits was properly reimbursed by the Nigerian state oil firm, leaving no improper unpaid favors from private energy companies.