Presidential election in Benin: FCBE bets on ‘dormant voters’ to bounce back.

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Despite modest scores and a total lack of seats, the FCBE intends to stay in the political race by betting on a factor it regards as decisive for the presidential election: the massive abstention in the recent double ballot.

Indeed, for FCBE leaders, the failure in the 2026 legislative and municipal elections does not mark the end of a cycle. It opens, on the contrary, a phase of strategic realignment.

Invited to BIP Radio on February 1, Simplice Dossou, an influential party official, adopted a calm but combative tone. The verdict of the ballots is accepted, he says, without contest. There is now room for introspection. The party announces an internal evaluation to understand why the votes obtained did not yield representation, despite alliances intended to mitigate the effects of the Electoral Code.

At the heart of this projection toward the April 2026 presidential elections lies a figure that FCBE brandishes as a political lever. Nearly 65% of registered voters would not have turned out in the last elections. A silent majority that the party describes as ‘sleeping voters’ and that it regards as the potential arbiter of the presidential election.

For Simplice Dossou, the stake is clear. A presidential election is not decided by the same levers as a local or parliamentary vote. The absence of elected officials today would not therefore rule out a national dynamic tomorrow.

Thus FCBE hopes to capture this segment of disillusioned or disengaged citizens, by offering them a credible alternative at the moment of choosing the head of state.

Weakened but not resigned, the Cauris movement tries to turn a heavy defeat into a strategic springboard. It remains to be seen whether this bet on abstention will, this time, translate into real turnout at the polls. In politics, silent voters are a promise. It still remains to wake them up.