The opposition party The Democrats could run in the January 2023 legislative elections. This is what should be said following the decision rendered by the Beninese constitutional court in the afternoon of this Thursday. Indeed, after the invalidation of the party’s files for the elections by the CENA, the leaders of the political formation introduced last Wednesday, an appeal to the constitutional court to ask to authorize it to change the four candidates who are not in order.
Ruling on the said appeal on Thursday, the high court, judge of electoral disputes in Benin ordered the ANEC to take into account the alternative list filed by the Democrats party to replace its first list. The seven wise men of the court have just dismissed the Directorate General of Taxes (DGI), responsible for issuing tax receipts.
Indeed, during the debates which lasted about seven hours, the leaders of the Democratic Party accused the DGI of not having done its job properly, thus denouncing the slowness in the procedure for issuing their tax receipts. Eric Houndété, president of the party, suggested that some candidates only received observations from the tax authorities on 7 November, after the deadline for filing applications. He argued that this slowness has prevented the correction of their file at the CENA, to validate their participation in the elections. On the other hand, the DGI assures that it respected the electoral code and the constitution.
After examining the file, the Court ordered the CENA to accept that the Democrats change the four candidates without tax clearance on the list of candidates. With this decision, the Democrats can hope to go to the elections, if the CENA does not find any other shortcomings in their files.
