The Bishops of Benin, in a message addressed on Tuesday to the Christian community and the people of Benin, called for “inclusive legislative elections,” stressing that they can only be held through the involvement of “each other” in preserving “peace and national unity at all cost.”
“After about three decades of democratic experience from above and below, Benin is now in a new situation: legislative elections in which only two parties of the same political persuasion would participate,” the Episcopal Conference said with regret before urging the Christian flock to mobilise to preserve peace and “to keep Benin away from the seeds and spectres of division, hatred and settling scores.”
Recalling the many meetings with political actors to encourage them to move in the direction of consensus building, the bishops invited the faithful to “intensify prayer and fasting during the Easter triduum with particular emphasis on the last Way of the Cross on Good Friday and the daily recitation of the Rosary and prayer for Benin during the Easter octave.”
Benin’s legislative elections, scheduled for April 28, will be held officially without the opposition.
Only two political parties of the presidential movement will take part.
UB/ard/cat/lb/as/APA