In Benin, the question of a probable third term for President Talon is already attracting attention. Just after the legislative elections, some of Benin’s Head of State’s supporters are inviting him to run for the supreme magistracy once again. However, facing the press online this Friday, March 24, 2023, the government spokesman Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji is very clear and reassures that “Talon does not want a third term.
According to Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji, the declarations of Jacques Migan, Loth Houénou and Bertin Koovi, who call on Patrice Talon to run for a third term of office, are their own responsibility. Because, “President Patrice Talon has only one word and will therefore do as he said. He is a man of honour who will go out through the front door,” he said, inviting media professionals to oppose the words of the Head of State. “Every time you hear these people, tell them what the president himself has already said. This is his second term.
Constitutional locks…
While the Beninese constitution was revised in November 2019 by a monocolour parliament with deputies all in favour of Patrice Talon, many are wondering whether this revision does not establish a new Republic and, as a result, sets the counter at zero for President Talon.
“The revision does not establish a new Republic, nor a new constitution because it is through these contortions that others go elsewhere, when they revise the constitution, to say I am entitled to a new mandate because it is an old constitution, it is a new Republic. (…) The texts today do not allow it and the president does not want it,” reassured the government spokesman.
“He strengthened the term limits in the Constitution by saying that no one can serve more than two terms as President of the Republic in their lifetime,” he said.
“Let the politicians have their political debate. Make an appointment. You will see how President Patrice Talon will go out the front door. The national and international opinion will remember that a popular president of the Republic, at the end of his mandate, decides to scrupulously comply with what the constitution in force at the moment has provided. That is the most important thing,” concluded Wilfried Léandre Houngbédji.
