Political parties in Benin

This article provides an overview of Benin's political parties . The West African state of Benin has a multi-party system . According to the Federal Foreign Office , political parties in Benin only play a subordinate role in comparison with individual personalities and ethnic or regional domestic powers .

In 2005, a study by the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung mentions 150 political parties in Benin, none of which are really represented nationwide. However, there is a noticeable trend towards the merging of parties into electoral alliances, with the result that the number of parties in the national parliament has halved from 24 in 1991 to 12 today.

From 1961 to 1963 the Rassemblement Démocratique du Dahomé was the only party in the then Republic of Dahomey - and from 1975 to 1990 the People's Revolutionary Party of Benin was the unity party in the People's Republic of Benin .

Parties or alliances represented in parliament

12 parties or alliances are represented in the National Assembly, the most important:

• Force Cauris pour un Benin Emergent (FCBE), 35 seats, supports the President
• Alliance pour une Dynamique Démocratique (ADD), 20 seats, opposition alliance
• Parti du Renouveau Démocratique (PRD), 10 seats, regional party in the southeast
• Front d'Action pour le Renouveau, la Démocratie et le Développement (Alafia), dominant party in northern Benin
• Parti Social-Démocrate (PSD), strongest force in the Southwest
• Parti de Renouveau Démocratique (PRD), in the southeast, department of Ouémé
• Mouvement Africain pour la Démocratie et le Progrès (MADEP), most successful in the department of Benin
• Renaissance du Bénin (RB), in the south of the country, stronghold of Cotonou (party of former President Nicéphore Dieudonné Soglo )

Parties formed in 2001

A list of the parties that stood in the elections in 2001, on the other hand, only lists the Parti du Renouveau Démocratique of the above parties and looks like this:

Mouvance Presidentielle ("Presidential Movement"), electoral alliance of supporters of Mathieu Kérékou in the 2001 election included:

• Union pour le Bénin du futur , (Union for the Benin of the future)
  • Front d'action pour le rénouveau et le développement (FARD-ALAFIA, Action Front for Renewal and Development)
  • Parti Social-Démocrate (Social Democratic Party)
• Mouvement africain pour la développement et le progrès ( African Movement for Development and Progress )
• Force clé ( key power )
• Impulsion au progrès et la démocratie ( Impulse for progress and democracy )

Alliance MDC-PS-CPP:

• Mouvement pour le Développement par la Culture ( movement for progress through culture )
• Parti du Salut ( Healing Party )
• Congrès du Peuple pour le Progrès ( People's Congress for Freedom )

Alliance des Forces du Progrès ( Alliance of the Forces of Progress ):

• Mouvement pour le Développement et la Solidarité ( Movement for Progress and Solidarity )
• Rassemblement pour la Démocratie et le Progrès ( Assembly for Democracy and Progress )

Parti de la renaissance du Bénin ( Party for the rebirth of Benin )

Parti du renouveau démocratique ( Party for Democratic Renewal )

Alliance Étoile ( Star Alliance ):

• Bâtisseurs et Gestionnaires de la Liberté et de la Démocratie ( Builders and Managers of Freedom and Democracy )
• Les Verts ( The Greens )
• Union pour la Démocratie et la Solidarité Nationale ( Union for Democracy and National Solidarity )

• Nouvelle Alliance ( New Alliance )

After the election, the Democratic Renewal Party joined the presidential movement.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Federal Foreign Office - Benin. Federal Foreign Office, October 1, 2009, accessed on March 22, 2011 . 
2. ↑ http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/03292.pdf
3. ↑ http://library.fes.de/pdf-files/iez/03292.pdf