Benin’s electoral campaign kicked off yesterday. The actual presidential election is March 6th. There are three candidates that have a shot, but the front-runner is the current Prime Minister, Lionel Zinsou. Zinsou is a massively polarizing figure because he was born and raised in France. In fact, he only came to Benin last June to become the Prime Minister.
I’ve heard the same question over and over: who would vote for a chef d’etat of their country who never actually lived there? When the perceived level of public sector corruption is as high as it is in Benin (tied with China and Colombia for 83rd out of 167 countries in the 2015 Corruption Perception Index), the answer appears to be: most people.
My favorite snippet related to yesterday’s electoral campaign kick off:
“Announcing the beginning of the electoral campaign ahead of the March 6 presidential election, La Nation noted that most candidates did not wait for the official campaign to begin before holding meetings and distributing gifts.”