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Protesters in Benin burned shops and erected barricades on Wednesday as soldiers in tanks surrounded the house of former President Thomas Boni Yayi after making calls to boycott the elections.
A few hours after the first results, the controversial parliamentary elections held on Sunday revealed a record participation rate, with no single candidate, soldiers and a large number of police deployed in the economic capital, Contonou.
The protesters erected improvised barriers in burning tires and set fire to a gas station near the presidential palace, shops and banks.
"The country is ours and we will get it back," said Artistide Metowanou, a young opposition activist. "If necessary, we will fight with bare hands against the dictatorship".
Tear gas
Protesters on the barricades chanted slogans against President Patrice Talon before the crowd was disbanded by riot police firing tear gas.
"We do not recognize our country," the protester Abdul Wahab told AFP. "We will not let his dictatorship take the country hostage."
All the candidates who participated in the April 28 vote came from two parties, both of which were Talon allies.
Boni Yayi, who led the West African nation for a decade until his resignation after his second term in 2016, remains popular among many others and he briefly appeared on the balcony of his home to salute his followers.
Along with other leaders, he called for the cancellation of Sunday's elections.
Many citizens have listened to the call of the opposition to boycott the ballot box, over three quarters of the five million registered voters staying away.
According to preliminary results published by the electoral commission, only 22.99% of registered voters voted.
Participation has never been less than 50% since the country's democratic transition in 1990.
Interior Minister, Sacca Lafia, said that security forces had been ordered to the streets to stop the protests, but announced that the information that they were attempting to stop Boni Yaya were "false news".
"Arbitrary arrests"
Before 1990, Benin was struggling with decades of authoritarian rule. Democracy has led to flourishing political competition: five years ago, voters could choose from 20 parties.
The small state of West Africa was considered a model of democracy.
But this year the legislators of the ruling party have adopted a new electoral code. Strict restrictions did not mean a single opposition candidate qualified to participate.
After the vote, Boni Yayi and Nicéphore Soglo, president from 1991 to 1996, voted against the elections.
"The people demand the return of democracy," Boni Yayi told reporters on Monday, calling on the population to resist the incumbent president. "Talon will walk on our bodies."
The situation has prompted warnings from civil society and rights groups inside and outside Benin.
Before voting, Amnesty International said that a "wave of arbitrary arrests of political activists and journalists, as well as repression of peaceful demonstrations" had reached an "alarming level".
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