Polls have opened in a second-round presidential election in Benin to replace the west African country's long-serving President Mathieu Kerekou. Almost four million voters were to go to the polls, which opened at 7:00am local time to choose between the former head of the West African Development Bank, Yayi Boni, and former parliamentary speaker Adrien Houngbedji.In the first round of voting on March 5, Mr Boni came out ahead of a field of 26 candidates with 35.6 per cent of the vote. Mr Houngbedji was second with 24 per cent. On Thursday, the constitutional court had upheld a request from the electoral agency to postpone the vote until Wednesday but the president, who holds ultimate constitutional responsibility, ignored the ruling.
The last minute confusion over the poll is likely to increase worries that it might be marred by political confusion and fraud allegations. International monitors pronounced the first round broadly free and fair, despite warnings of fraud from Mr Kerekou, who has ruled Benin for 30 of the past 34 years but who at 72 is considered too old to stand for re-election.