Benin

November 2005 | Risk Summary

Despite a pledge to the contrary in July, rumours are now circulating that President Mathieu Kérékou might seek a third five-year term in 2006. Having come to power in a military coup in 1972, Kérékou was voted out of office in 1991, having introduced multi-party democracy the year before. He has now served two terms since being re-elected president in 1996. To run again in 2006, clauses of the constitution imposing a two-term limit on the presidency and blocking candidates over 70 (Kérékou is 72) would have to be amended. This would require a 75% majority in a parliamentary vote,

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