One month after an attempted coup rocked Benin, the West African country will hold parliamentary and local elections on Sunday, contests expected to shape the political landscape ahead of the presidential poll scheduled for April.

President Patrice Talon’s ruling coalition is widely expected to consolidate its grip on power, with the main opposition Democrats party barred from the local elections — and from the April presidential race — for failing to secure the required number of endorsement signatures.

Although the Democrats will participate in Sunday’s parliamentary elections, they risk losing further ground to Talon’s three-party bloc, which currently controls 81 of the 109 seats in the National Assembly.

The polls come at a tense moment for Benin, still reeling from a failed coup attempt by army mutineers on December 7. The uprising was quelled within hours by the military, with support from Nigeria and France.

Talon, 67, has overseen strong economic growth during nearly a decade in power, but critics accuse his administration of tightening restrictions on political opposition and civil liberties.

Security is also expected to be a major issue for voters, as northern Benin has suffered spillover attacks by jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda from neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger.

Although Talon, who is nearing the end of his second five-year term, is constitutionally barred from contesting the April election, his preferred successor, Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, is considered the frontrunner.

Wadagni is expected to face a single challenger in the presidential race — moderate opposition figure Paul Hounkpe of the smaller FCBE party, which has signed cooperation agreements with parties in the ruling coalition.

FCBE parliamentary candidates are also expected to align with the ruling bloc if elected on Sunday.

Under a constitutional amendment passed in November, the presidential term was extended to seven years, with a two-term limit retained.

Following Sunday’s legislative elections and April’s presidential poll, Benin will go several years without any nationwide elections — a development the Democrats have criticised as placing “freedoms in quarantine”.

Some analysts warn that the opposition could lose all its parliamentary seats under the current electoral law, which requires parties to secure the backing of at least 20 per cent of registered voters in each of the country’s 24 electoral districts to qualify for parliamentary contests.

“For all but the ruling coalition, that 20-per-cent threshold appears largely insurmountable,” said Beninese political scientist Joel Atayi Guedegbe.

He also noted that the Democrats have been weakened by internal divisions.

“It is not as united and determined as it was during the 2023 elections, when it won 28 seats,” Guedegbe said.

Ahead of the vote, Amnesty International’s executive director in Benin, Dieudonné Dagbeto, warned that civic space in the country was shrinking, citing attacks on independent media and the arbitrary arrest and detention of individuals for expressing dissenting views.

Members of the ruling majority have rejected the allegations.