Benin: PM Zinsou and Talon officially to contest poll's run-off

The second round of the presidential election in Benin will feature Lionel Zinsou and Patrice Talon.

The current Prime Minister and the businessman made it to the top of the presidential polls of March 6th, according to the results announced on Sunday, by the Constitutional court.

“From the results, Lionel Alain Louis Zinsou-Derlin scored 858 080, Patrice Guillaume Athanase Talon got 746 528, while Sébastien Germain Ajavon scored 693 084,” announced Théodore Holo, President of the Constitutional court.

About 100 000 votes separate the current Prime Minister and the businessman.

The second round of the election is scheduled for March 20th because none of the candidates obtained the absolute majority, the second round would however decide between the two.

Présidentielle au #Bénin > le 2nd tour opposera le Premier ministre Lionel Zinsou à l'homme d'affaires Patrice Talon (résultats officiels)

— iTELE (@itele) March 13, 2016

The 2016 presidential election is expected to produce the successor of current president,Boni Yayi, whose mandate ends on April 5th, 2016 after two five-year terms.

Initially planned for February 28th, the country’s presidential election was postponed on March 6th because of delays in the distribution of the 4.7m voters cards.

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), had deployed 120 observers and 16 experts across the country, and have also hailed “the absence of major incidents during the electoral process “. This one took place “in acceptable conditions of freedom and transparency,” it said.

The campaign has began and will come to an end on Friday at midnight.

Lionel Zinsou had thanked voters and greeted his challenger saying “both words which are going to matter for this decisive week are the unity and the peace”.

Patrice Talon has also congratulated his opponents adding that he hoped to embody the ideal man for Benin.