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With elections approaching I find myself much more often with Beninese friends who have satellite television. Via satellite I can follow the American presidential campaign. Fortunately I don’t have to bribe them with cake to be allowed to watch; even they are interested in the campaign process. Benin is also preparing for elections, so my friends and I profit from the news by discussing political systems in Benin and in America. My friend Mathurin, who I also call Mr. Know-it-All, is a candidate for elections, and is my well-informed resource on the Beninese political system. I am not as qualified of a resource on the American system, but I do my best. As a Peace Corps Volunteer I am apolitical, but I am interested in the comparisons between the two systems. Thus I do a little ‘cultural exchange’ by writing it.

The Republic of Benin is divided into 12 ‘departements,’ each headed by a ‘prefet,’ and those ‘departements’ are divided into communes. There are 77 communes in the country, each led by a mayor. The communes are divided into ‘arrondissements’ with a chief in the lead, and within those ‘arrondissements’ are found the villages and towns and the sizeable neighborhoods that contain their chiefs and delegates. This is similar to the state-county-township/parish-town-neighborhood divisions found in the United States. The Beninese elections in April are to vote the leaders from the communes to the neighborhoods.

This takes a lot of coordination. A candidate for any of the local government councils must be affiliated with a recognized political party. If a candidate wishes to not be affiliated with a political party, or can’t find a political party to accept their candidature, he/she becomes an independent and must follow the same procedure as the organized political party. The political party or the independent creates a list of all candidates for the council’s on each level of government.

For an example, I create the political party ‘Power of Benin.’ ‘Power of Benin’ must list candidates for the mayoral council, each village’s council, and the councils for the largest neighborhoods. The size of the population of the voting area determines the number of representatives in the council. If the voting area has a population for three council members, each political party finds three candidates for that council’s list. Once ‘Power of Benin’ has this list of names for each council, each candidate creates a file with documents stating his or her identity. Sometimes just finding a birth certificate is a problem, let alone a photo identity. If there is no birth certificate, another form is filled out stating the most accurate information. All of the files for all of the candidates must be reviewed by a higher level of government to assure authenticity.

Now ‘Power of Benin’ has its list of candidates. There are ten official days of campaign; during this time the population learns to associate a certain symbol with their preferred political party or independent. The symbol is used in place of names because of high illiteracy rates. Legally a voter is free to vote for one party for the candidates on the communal council and a different party on the village council, but the idea is to remain loyal to the political party and ‘vote the list,’ as the Beninese say, from top to bottom. The percentage of the total vote for each political party determines the number of candidates from that party on the council. If one party wins the majority of the vote, 51%, that party takes all the positions on the council. If no single party wins the majority, the parties with the highest percentages in the total vote contribute candidates to the council according to each party’s percentage of the vote.

Where the Beninese system becomes more complicated, or rather differs more distinctly from the American system, is that the population does not vote for a single person. Each vote is a vote toward the members of a council, and a majority is not required to be elected. Once the council is voted in, the members of the council vote amongst themselves to elect the head: within the communal council the mayor, the first and second deputies to the mayor, and the chiefs of each arrondissement within the commune are elected. Within the villages, the chief of the village is elected, with the remaining council members acting as advisors. Technically, the head of each council can never act without at least a nod from the other council members. As an American, I find the Beninese system less direct- why vote for a council, that may not have a majority of the vote, which then votes the leaders, and not just vote the leader directly? But I suppose that the Beninese find the American system too direct- how can one person represent everyone? Thus we gnaw on another hunk of cultural exchange.

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