coup

Elections take place weeks after foiled coup attempt that shook the country.

Voters in Benin are casting ballots to select members of parliament and local representatives, just weeks after a failed coup attempt by army mutineers.

President Patrice Talon’s governing coalition is projected to strengthen its already powerful position in Sunday’s elections, with the main opposition Democrats party barred from the local polls.

The streets of economic capital Cotonou were calm as polling stations opened at 7am local time (06:00 GMT) on Sunday, according to the AFP news agency. Polls are scheduled to close at 5pm (16:00 GMT).

“I’m coming to vote early so I don’t have to deal with the midday crowds after church,” restaurateur Adeline Sonon, 32, told AFP after casting her ballot.

The single-round legislative polls will elect 109 members of the National Assembly, where Talon’s three-party bloc hopes to strengthen its majority.

The Democrats, contesting only the parliamentary races, risk ceding ground to the ruling coalition, which currently holds 81 seats.

Some observers say the opposition may lose all 28 seats, given the current electoral law requiring parties to gather support from 20 percent of registered voters in each of the country’s 24 voting districts to stand for parliament.

The elections come weeks after a deadly coup attempt by soldiers on December 7, which was thwarted in a matter of hours by the military, with support from neighbouring Nigeria.

The campaign unfolded without large rallies, with most parties opting for grassroots strategies like door-to-door canvassing.

“All measures have been taken to guarantee a free, transparent and secure vote. No political ambition can justify violence or endanger national unity,” head of the electoral commission, Sacca Lafia, said on Saturday.

The legislative elections are set to define the political landscape ahead of April’s presidential poll, with the opposition struck off the ballot.

While Talon, 67, who is nearing the end of his second five-year term, is barred from running in April’s elections, his hand-picked successor, Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, is a strong favourite to win.

Talon has presided over strong economic development across his nearly a decade in power, but critics accuse him of restricting political opposition and basic rights.

BREAKINGBREAKING,

Mamady Doumbouya faced eight rivals for the presidency, but the main opposition leaders were barred from running.

Guinea coup leader ⁠Mamady Doumbouya has ​been ‍elected president, according ‍to provisional results, paving the way for a ​return ‌to civilian governing after a military takeover nearly five years ago.

The provisional ‌results announced on Tuesday showed Doumbouya winning ‌86.72 percent of the vote held on ⁠December 28 – an absolute majority that allows him to avoid a runoff.

The ‌Supreme Court has eight days to validate the results in the ‍event of any challenge.

Doumbouya, 41, faced eight rivals for the presidency, but the main opposition leaders were barred from running and had urged a boycott of the vote.

The former special forces commander seized power in 2021, toppling then-President Alpha Conde, who had been in office since 2010. It was one in ​a series of ‌nine coups that have reshaped politics in West and Central Africa since 2020.

Voting is under way in Myanmar’s heavily restricted election, the first since the military toppled Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically-elected government in a coup in 2021. Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng explains the process from a polling station in Yangon.

Mamady Doumbouya may win amid accusations of restrictions on the media and the opposition parties.

Guinea is holding a presidential election in which incumbent military leader General Mamady Doumbouya, who took power in a 2021 coup, is widely anticipated to secure victory.

Some 6.7 million registered voters will go to the polls, which opened at 07:00 GMT on Sunday and will close at 18:00 GMT.

The former special forces commander, aged 41, faces eight other candidates in the election, as ousted President Alpha Conde and longtime opposition leader Cellou Dalein Diallo remain in exile.

The opposition has called for a boycott of the vote in the mineral-rich country where 52 percent of the population lives in poverty, according to World Bank figures.

While long blighted by coups, Guinea experienced a democratic transition with the November 2010 election of Alpha Conde, the country’s first freely elected president. Doumbouya overthrew him in September 2021.

Under Doumbouya, Guinea effectively “reverted to what it has essentially known since independence in 1958: authoritarian regimes, whether civilian or military”, Gilles Yabi, founder of the West African think tank Wathi, told the AFP news agency.

Provisional results could be announced within two days, according to Djenabou Toure, head of the General Directorate of Elections.

Restrictions on opposition

Political debate has been muted under Doumbouya. Civil society groups accuse his government of banning protests, curbing press freedom and restricting opposition activity.

The campaign period “has been severely restricted, marked by intimidation of opposition actors, apparently politically motivated enforced disappearances, and constraints on media freedom”, United Nations rights chief Volker Turk said on Friday.

These conditions “risk undermining the credibility of the electoral process”, he added.

Opposition leader Diallo has condemned the vote as “an electoral charade” aimed at giving legitimacy to “the planned confiscation of power”.

In September, Guinea approved a new constitution in a referendum, which the opposition called on voters to boycott.

The new document allowed military leaders to stand for election, paving the way for Doumbouya’s candidacy.

It also lengthened presidential terms from five to seven years, renewable once.

‘Hope things will be sorted’

Guinea holds the world’s largest bauxite reserves and the richest untapped iron ore deposit at Simandou, officially launched last month after years of delay.

Doumbouya has claimed credit for pushing the project forward and ensuring Guinea benefits from its output. His government this year also revoked EGA subsidiary Guinea Alumina Corporation’s licence after a refinery dispute, transferring its assets to a state-owned firm.

The turn towards resource nationalism – echoed in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – has boosted his popularity, as has his youth in a country where the median age is about 19.

“For us young people, Doumbouya represents the opportunity to send the old political class into retirement,” Mohamed Kaba, a mechanic in Conakry, told the Reuters news agency.

“There is a lot of corruption right now, but I hope these things will be sorted out.”

Polls have opened in Myanmar’s first general election since the country’s military toppled Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi’s democratically elected government in a 2021 coup.

The heavily restricted election on Sunday is taking place in about a third of the Southeast Asian nation’s 330 townships, with large areas inaccessible amid a raging civil war between the military and an array of opposition forces.

Following the initial phase, two rounds of voting will be held on January 11 and January 25, while voting has been cancelled in 65 townships altogether.

“This means that at least 20 percent of the country is disenfranchised at this stage,” said Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Myanmar’s largest city, Yangon. “The big question is going to be here in the cities, what is the turnout going to be like?”

In Yangon, polling stations opened at 6am on Sunday (23:30 GMT, Saturday), and once the sun was up, “we’ve seen a relatively regular flow of voters come in,” said Cheng.

“But the voters are generally middle aged, and we haven’t seen many young people. When you look at the ballot, there are only few choices. The vast majority of those choices are military parties,” he said.

The election has been derided by critics – including the United Nations, some Western countries and human rights ⁠groups – as an exercise that is not free, fair or credible, with anti-military political parties not competing.

Aung San Suu Kyi, who was deposed by the military ​months after her National League for Democracy (NLD) won the last general election by a landslide in 2020, remains in detention, and her party has been dissolved.

The pro-military Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) is widely expected to emerge as the largest party.

The military, which has governed Myanmar since 2021, said the vote is a chance for a new start, politically and economically, for the nation of 55 million people, with Senior General Min Aung Hlaing consistently framing the polls as a path to reconciliation.

The military chief cast his ballot shortly after polling stations opened in Naypyidaw, the country’s capital.

The polls “will turn a new page for Myanmar, shifting the narrative from a conflict-affected, crisis-laden country to a new chapter of hope for building peace and reconstructing ‌the economy”, an opinion piece in the state-run Global New Light of Myanmar said on Saturday.

‘A resounding USDP victory’

But with fighting still raging in many areas of the country, the elections are being held in an environment of violence and repression, according to UN human rights chief Volker Turk. “There are no conditions for the exercise of the rights of freedom of expression, association or peaceful assembly that allow for the free and meaningful participation of the people,” he said last week.

The civil war, which was triggered by the 2021 coup, has killed an estimated 90,000 people, displaced 3.5 million and left some 22 million people in need of humanitarian assistance.

According to the Assistance Association for Political Prisoners, more than 22,000 people are currently detained for political offences.

In downtown Yangon, stations were cordoned off overnight, with security staff posted outside, while armed officers guarded traffic intersections. Election officials set up equipment and installed electronic voting machines, which are being used for the first time in Myanmar.

The machines will not allow write-in candidates or spoiled ballots.

Among a trickle of early voters in the city was 45-year-old Swe Maw, who dismissed international criticism.

“It’s not an important matter,” he told the AFP news agency. “There are always people who like and dislike.”

In the central Mandalay region, 40-year-old Moe Moe Myint said it was “impossible for this election to be free and fair”.

“How can we support a junta-run election when this military has destroyed our lives?” she told AFP. “We are homeless, hiding in jungles, and living between life and death,” she added.

The second round of polling will take place in two weeks’ time, before the third and final round on January 25.

Dates for counting votes and announcing election results have not been declared.

Analysts say the military’s attempt to establish a stable administration in the midst of an expansive conflict is fraught with risk, and that significant international recognition is unlikely for any military-controlled government.

“The outcome is hardly in doubt: a resounding USDP victory and a continuation of army rule with a thin civilian veneer,” wrote Richard Horsey, an analyst at the International Crisis Group in a briefing earlier this month.

“But it will in no way ease Myanmar’s political crisis or weaken the resolve of a determined armed resistance. Instead, it will likely harden political divisions and prolong Myanmar’s state failure. The new administration, which will take power in April 2026, will have few better options, little credibility and likely no feasible strategy for moving the country in a positive direction,” he added.