Fiscal clearance: the opposition denounces a “political weapon” of the government ahead of 2026
Less than a year before the 2026 general elections, the issuance of the tax clearance certificate has resurfaced as a matter of contention.
SUMMARY
The party Les Démocrates, in a press briefing on Monday, September 15, accuses Patrice Talon’s regime of instrumentalizing this administrative tool to exclude inconvenient candidacies.
On Friday, September 12, 2025, the Direction Générale des Impôts (DGI) announced the launch of the online platform for requesting and verifying the tax clearance certificate. While the measure falls within the framework of the Electoral Code revised in 2024, it is raising serious concerns within the opposition.
The new Article 41 of the Electoral Code requires each candidate to provide a tax clearance certificate covering the last three years. The principle is not disputed by Les Démocrates, who acknowledge that a future officeholder must be in good standing with the tax authorities. But the party believes the document has, since 2019, become an instrument of exclusion.
“Opponents who were up to date have been denied clearances through fictitious tax assessments,” the party recalls, citing the 2019 legislative elections, the 2023 elections and the 2021 presidential election. For the opposition, history is repeating itself.
A platform with controversial functioning
Concerns are now focused on the new platform opened by the DGI. Applicants must not only specify the type of election for which they are requesting the clearance, but may request only one at a time.
For Les Démocrates, this restriction, absent from the Electoral Code, opens the door to selective blocking. “It is a new hurdle imposed on opposition figures,” the party denounces, seeing it as “a maneuver to control and eliminate” its leaders from the 2026 ballots.
A call to mobilize
Faced with what it calls a “plot,” the opposition party is calling for the depoliticization of the tax administration and for the mobilization of the Beninese people. “Any citizen in good standing must be able to stand as a candidate in any elections of their choosing,” the party insists.
With this showdown over the tax clearance certificate, tensions are already rising in the pre-electoral climate. If the DGI maintains its requirements, the legal and political battle could well become central to the electoral process, at the risk of further eroding trust in institutions.
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