Benin’s Election Body Urged to Organize Transparent Elections

The president of the West African Network for Peace Building (WANEP ) on Thursday urged members of Benin’s Autonomous National Electoral Commission, political and social actors to show patriotism so that the electoral watchdog could organize transparent and peaceful local elections next April.

Orden Alladatin said the success of the elections is a springboard to the consolidation of democracy, social peace and development in Benin.

In a public statement issued in Cotonou, Alladatin said decentralization and local elections are the most expressive form of democracy.

“An effective grassroots development depends on their success,” he said, deploring the crises currently noted within the electoral body.

“Unfortunately, the institutional crises and the increasing movements within CENA (Autonomous National Electoral Commission) are not likely to give credibility to the electoral system and the next Beninese local elections,” he said.

He said rigged or badly organized elections are sources of violence.

“Badly organized or disputed election led to violence and slaughters in Rwanda, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Togo, Cote d’Ivoire and Kenya, whereas these countries lived in an atmosphere of relative peace,” he said.

Source African Press Agency

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