Togo and Benin after the 2025–2026 elections: where women stand, and what RFLD’s trainings aim to change

Benin and Togo have both rebuilt their political institutions since 2024, and women are still a minority in each of them. In Benin, the January 2026 elections gave women 28 of the 109 seats in the National Assembly (25.7%), 24 of them through the seats reserved for women [2][4]. Women won only about 70 of the 1,815 seats on communal councils, and 4 of the 77 mayors are women [4][6]. President Romuald Wadagni’s first government has 6 women out of 24 members [12]. In Togo, women hold 21 of 113 seats in the National Assembly (18.6%) [20], 6 of the 41 elected Senate seats [21] and 216 of 1,527 municipal council seats (14.1%) [30]. The first government of Togo’s Fifth Republic has 5 women out of 27 members [31].

Why these two countries, and why now

Benin and Togo are neighbours, and in the space of two years both have changed how power is organised. Togo moved to a parliamentary system with a new constitution in April 2024. It added a Senate in 2025 and created a powerful new post, President of the Council of Ministers [16][17][21]. Benin amended its constitution in November 2025, creating a Senate and extending presidential and legislative terms from five to seven years [14]. It then held legislative and communal elections in January 2026 and a presidential election in April 2026 [2][8].

New institutions are a chance to write women in, or to leave them out again. RFLD’s trainings in both countries in 2025 and 2026 took place against this background.

RFLD measures these questions against the Maputo Protocol (2003). Article 9 asks states to take specific positive action, including affirmative action, so that women take part in elections and decision-making on an equal footing with men. Both Benin and Togo are parties to the Protocol.

Events, 2021 to 2026

2021

• Benin, 2021. Mariam Chabi Talata became Vice-President of the Republic, a post created by the 2019 constitutional revision. She had earlier been a teacher, a school inspector, a member of parliament and First Vice-President of the National Assembly in 2019 [11].

2022

• Togo. According to the Lomé outlet Togonews, four laws were revised in 2022 to remove discriminatory provisions: the Persons and Family Code, the Penal Code, the Social Security Code and the Labour Code [23].

2023

• Benin, January 2023 legislative elections. The reserved-seat system was used for the first time. Women won 28 of 109 seats (25.7%), up from 7.2% in the previous Assembly, according to UNDP [5][1].

2024

• Togo, 25 March and 19 April 2024. The outgoing National Assembly adopted a new constitution, first on 25 March, then again on 19 April after a second reading requested by the President. All 87 members present voted in favour [16][17]. The President of the Republic became a largely ceremonial office elected by parliament for four years, renewable once. Real executive power moved to a President of the Council of Ministers chosen by the majority, for six years and with no clear limit on renewal [16][17]. Opposition parties called it a “constitutional coup” [16][17].
• Togo, April 2024 campaign. About 593 women were among 2,348 legislative candidates (25%). The outgoing Assembly had 17 women out of 91 members. Women made up 13.23% of municipal councillors and led 12 of 117 communes. Opposition figure Brigitte Adjamagbo-Johnson told Africanews that getting into politics was “a big risk, including a physical one” [19][18].
• Togo, 29 April 2024 legislative and regional elections. The ruling Union pour la République (UNIR) won 108 of 113 seats, with about 61% turnout according to provisional results [18]. The Inter-Parliamentary Union currently records 21 women in the 113-seat Assembly (18.6%) [20].

2025

• Togo, 15 February 2025 Senate elections. Municipal and regional councillors elected 41 of the 61 senators. UNIR won 34 of the 41 seats. Major opposition groups boycotted the vote [21]. According to the electoral commission, women won 6 of the 41 elected seats [21]. Faure Gnassingbé appointed the other 20 senators on 5 March [21]. Togonews describes those 20 appointments as made on a parity basis (“nomination paritaire”) [23]. We could not find an official list confirming how many of the 20 are women, so the total number of women senators remains unconfirmed. Barry Moussa Barqué became Senate president on 2 April 2025 [22][24].
• Togo, 3 May 2025. Parliament elected Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové President of the Republic. Faure Gnassingbé, in power since 2005, took the new post of President of the Council of Ministers, with no fixed term limit [25][26].
• Togo, June 2025 protests. The arrest of the rapper Aamron on 5 June triggered protests. Around 80 people were arrested on 5 and 6 June, and journalists were detained or prevented from working, according to the Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) [28]. During protests in Lomé from 26 to 28 June, seven bodies were found in lagoons and a lake, including a 16-year-old boy. More than 60 people were arrested [27][28].
• Togo, August to October 2025. Protests continued. According to a compilation of press reports, former defence minister Essozimna Marguerite Gnakadé was arrested on 17 September 2025, allegedly for “incitement to revolt”. Activist Grâce Koumayi Biyoki was arrested on 3 October 2025 over an anti-government video [29].
• Togo, 17 July 2025 municipal elections. Official turnout was 56.74%. UNIR won 1,150 of 1,527 council seats. Women won 216 seats, or 14.1% [30].
• Benin, 16 September 2025. The Bloc Républicain named Vice-President Mariam Chabi Talata as Romuald Wadagni’s running mate for the 2026 presidential election [11].
• Togo, 8 October 2025. The first government of the Fifth Republic was announced. It has 27 members: 17 ministers and 10 ministers delegate [31][32]. Five are women: Cina Lawson (Public Service and Digital Transformation), Yawa Kouigan (Communication), Mazamesso Assih (Grassroots Development), Martine Moni-Sankaredja (Solidarity, Gender, Family and Child Protection) and Manuella Modukpe Santos (minister delegate for Investment Promotion) [31].
• Benin, 15 November 2025. The National Assembly adopted a constitutional revision by 90 votes to 19. It created a Senate of 25 to 30 members, appointed or sitting by right, and extended presidential and legislative terms to seven years from 2026 [14]. RFI reported no provision on women in the revision [14].
• Benin, 31 December 2025. La Nouvelle Tribune explained the reserved-seat rule under the Electoral Code (Law 2019-43, amended by Law 2024-13). Each of the 24 constituencies has one extra seat for a woman, awarded to the list with the most votes among those that named a woman for it [1].

2026

• Benin, 11 January 2026 legislative and communal elections. Women were 316 of the 1,090 legislative candidates (about 29%). Every party met the requirement to name 24 women for reserved seats, but the observer platform WROP-Bénin said parties did little beyond that minimum [3]. Turnout was 36.73%. Two parties close to President Patrice Talon took all 109 seats: the UPR won 60 (16 of them reserved for women) and the Bloc Républicain won 49 (8 reserved), leaving no opposition in parliament [2][7][10].
• Benin, late January 2026. At the end of the 11 January 2026 legislative elections, the new Assembly counts 28 women out of 109 deputies (25.7%), the same number as in 2023. Twenty-four of them hold seats reserved for women; only four won ordinary seats [4].
• Benin, February 2026, communes. After the communal councils were installed, four women were designated mayors: Marguerite Agbanzé (Toffo), Patricia Saï (Toucountouna), Zinatou Alazi (Kandi) and Angélique Titilayo (Kétou) [6]. According to Charlotte Ezebada, president of the association Women and Power, that makes 4 women out of 77 mayors, and women won 70 of the 1,815 council seats (3.86%) [4].
• Benin, 12 April 2026 presidential election. Romuald Wadagni won with 94.27% of the vote against Paul Hounkpè (5.73%). The main opposition party was absent [8]. The Constitutional Court’s final turnout was 63.57% [8]. Reuters had reported a provisional 58.78% [9].
• Togo, May 2026. RFLD trained 30 women leaders in Lomé, one year after the new two-chamber parliament began work (see below) [33].
• Benin, 24 May 2026. Wadagni was sworn in, with Mariam Chabi Talata as Vice-President [10][11]. His government has 24 members, 6 of them women: Corinne Amori Brunet (Foreign Affairs), Sédami Mèdégan Fagla (Higher Education), Véronique Tognifodé (Family and Social Action), Sadia Alimatou Assouma (Domestic Trade), Awawou Bakou (Small and Medium Enterprises and Employment) and Aurélie Adam Soulé (Communication) [12][13].
• Benin, July 2026. Benin’s first Senate, with 25 members, was installed in Porto-Novo. Its oldest member, Élisabeth Pognon, aged 89, chaired the opening sitting [15]. We did not find a gender breakdown of the Senate.

The numbers side by side

Two patterns stand out. First, in Benin the quota does most of the work. Of the 28 women in the Assembly, 24 sit in reserved seats and only 4 won ordinary seats. Where there is no quota, at communal level, women hold under 4% of seats. Second, in Togo no rule guarantees seats, and women remain below one in five in parliament.

The gap between candidates and winners also matters. Women were 25% of legislative candidates in Togo in 2024 [18] and 29% in Benin in 2026 [3]. They won far fewer than that share of ordinary seats. Women are often placed where they cannot win.

What the law says, and the gaps

Benin. The Electoral Code (Law 2019-43, amended by Law 2024-13) reserves 24 seats for women [1]. This raised women’s share in the Assembly from 7.2% to about a quarter [5]. But the rule has limits:

• It sets a fixed number, not a share, so it does not grow if parties nominate more women.
• It does not cover communal councils, where women won under 4% of seats [4].
• The November 2025 constitutional revision created an appointed Senate without any gender rule, according to RFI [14].
• With seven-year terms [14], the current balance will last until about 2033.
• Charlotte Ezebada argues that quotas are necessary but not enough, and that women’s presence in parties is often “cosmetic” [4].

Togo. The 2024 Constitution reorganised power but, according to the sources we reviewed, did not add a binding quota for elected seats [16][17]. Women won 6 of 41 elected Senate seats (14.6%) [21]. Appointed seats are the only place where parity is reported [23]. The 2025 protests also showed how risky political involvement can be. Women opposition figures and activists were reportedly confined to their homes or arrested [29].

Data. In both countries, election bodies do not routinely publish official results broken down by sex. This is why the figures in this article come partly from the press and observers, and why they sometimes disagree.

What RFLD’s trainings changed, and what we can say so far

RFLD has worked on women’s political participation in both countries throughout this election cycle. We set out below what the trainings were, as described in RFLD’s own announcements. It is too early to claim measurable effects on election results: Togo’s next elections are years away.

• Benin, 2025: youth consultation. RFLD announced a youth consultation on political participation in anticipation of the 2026 general elections in Benin [34].
• Benin: partnership with REFELA. RFLD and REFELA, the network of locally elected women, joined forces under the title “Dialogue et action” to support women’s participation in politics in Benin [35]. An RFLD grant was also announced to support REFELA’s work on women’s leadership for political equality [36].
• Togo, May 2026: 30 women leaders in Lomé. RFLD trained 30 women leaders in Lomé to strengthen their political participation in the first year of Togo’s two-chamber parliament [33].
• Francophone West Africa: 110 women leaders. RFLD announced a week of training for 110 women leaders across Francophone West Africa [37].

What we can say with care is this. These activities reached women who are already active in local councils, parties and civil society. They focused on the moments when rules are being written: Benin’s new seven-year cycle and Togo’s new Senate. The observer platform WROP-Bénin linked the rise in women’s candidacies partly to “civil society capacity-building” [3], and RFLD’s work is part of that wider effort. But no source we found measures the direct effect of any single training.

What RFLD asks for

1. Benin: move from 24 reserved seats to a share that grows toward parity. Party lists for ordinary seats should alternate women and men, so women can win beyond the quota.
2. Benin: extend gender rules to communal councils and the Senate. With 70 women among about 1,815 councillors [4], local government needs its own binding rule.
3. Togo: adopt a binding parity law for candidate lists, with placement rules, for legislative, senatorial, regional and municipal elections.
4. Both countries: publish official sex-disaggregated results through the electoral commissions (CENA and CENI), the Assemblies and the Senates, within 30 days of each election or appointment.
5. Both countries: aim for parity in government. Women hold 6 of 24 posts in Benin [12] and 5 of 27 in Togo [31]. Women should also lead economic and security ministries, not only social portfolios.
6. Link public party funding to women’s candidacies in winnable positions, and fund training and campaign support for women candidates.
7. Togo: protect civic space. We ask for independent investigations into the deaths during the 2025 protests [28], due process for everyone detained, and an end to measures that keep women politicians and activists from moving freely.
8. Both countries: report on Article 9 of the Maputo Protocol in their next periodic reports to the African Commission and to the CEDAW Committee, with clear targets and timelines.

RFLD tools you can use today

• Check where women stand in leadership, country by country, with the Women in Leadership Tracker for Africa, including the Benin and Togo pages.
• Read the laws in force on Benin and Togo in our Women’s Rights Laws by Country database.
• Download the Gender Equality and Women’s Rights in Benin report.
• See how states score on the Protocol in the Maputo Barometer 2026, and read the Protocol in Goun and other languages on The Maputo Protocol in your language.
• Use the RFLD ACDEG Hub to work with the African Charter on Democracy, Elections and Governance, and the West Africa legislative platform to follow bills.
• Plan your shadow reporting with the CEDAW and UPR review calendar.
• Take the free courses Civic Space, Democracy and Digital Advocacy and Advocacy Theory and Practice at the Francophone Academy.

Closing

Benin shows that a quota works: women’s share in the Assembly rose from about 7% to about a quarter once seats were reserved. It also shows a quota’s limits, because parties rarely go beyond the minimum and local councils remain almost entirely male. Togo shows that new institutions do not bring women in by themselves. The women RFLD trained across the region are preparing for the next openings: party lists, Senate appointments and periodic reviews. RFLD will keep counting, keep asking for the data, and keep standing with women who choose to lead.

References

1. La Nouvelle Tribune, “Législatives de 2026 au Bénin : comment les sièges réservés aux femmes sont attribués au Parlement”, 31 December 2025. lanouvelletribune.info
2. Benin Web TV, “2026 legislative elections in Benin: 60 seats for the UPR and 49 seats for the BR (CENA)”, 17 January 2026. beninwebtv.bj
3. Armel Tognon, La Nouvelle Tribune, “Élections couplées au Bénin : les femmes toujours minoritaires selon la plateforme WROP-Bénin”, 13 January 2026. lanouvelletribune.info
4. SenePlus, “Bénin, l’art de gouverner sans les femmes : entretien avec Charlotte Ezebada”, 5 April 2026. seneplus.com
5. UNDP Benin, “Une amélioration de la représentativité des femmes à la 9ème législature de l’Assemblée nationale du Bénin”, 19 January 2023. undp.org
6. Benin Web TV, “Décentralisation au Bénin : quatre femmes désignées maires”, 16 February 2026. beninwebtv.bj
7. Afrik.com, “Assemblée nationale du Bénin : la 10e législature s’installe dans un Parlement sans opposition”, February 2026. afrik.com
8. Jeannine Ella Abatan, Institute for Security Studies, “Benin hands Romuald Wadagni a growth mandate and a democratic test”, 6 May 2026. issafrica.org
9. Reuters via The EastAfrican, “Benin’s Wadagni wins presidency in landslide with over 94pc of votes”, 14 April 2026. theeastafrican.co.ke
10. Wikipedia, “2026 in Benin”, accessed 29 October 2026. en.wikipedia.org
11. Benin Web TV, “2026 presidential election in Benin: the BR names Mariam Chabi Talata as Romuald Wadagni’s running mate”, 17 September 2025. beninwebtv.bj
12. Wakat Séra, composition of Benin’s first Wadagni government (24 members), 24 May 2026. wakatsera.com
13. News Central TV, “Benin: Wadagni Forms 24-Member Cabinet”, 24 May 2026. newscentraltv.com
14. Jean-Luc Aplogan, RFI via AllAfrica, “Bénin: Sénat, mandat présidentiel… l’Assemblée nationale adopte une révision constitutionnelle”, 15 November 2025. allafrica.com
15. Le360 Afrique, “Le premier Sénat du Bénin entre en fonction”, 31 July 2026. afrique.le360.ma
16. France 24 / AP, “Togo lawmakers give final approval to new constitution amid opposition fears”, 19 April 2024. france24.com
17. Jeannine Ella Abatan, Institute for Security Studies, “Hasty constitutional reforms deepen tensions in Togo”, 4 July 2024. issafrica.org
18. International IDEA, “Democracy Tracker: Togo, April 2024”. idea.int
19. Africanews, “Togo: Women candidates campaign for more seats ahead of legislative and regional elections”, 23 April 2024. africanews.com
20. Inter-Parliamentary Union, “Parline: Togo, National Assembly”, accessed 29 October 2026. data.ipu.org
21. International IDEA, “Democracy Tracker: Togo, February 2025”. idea.int
22. Wikipedia, “Senate of Togo”, accessed 29 October 2026. en.wikipedia.org
23. Togonews via AllAfrica, “Togo: Un pays plus égalitaire”, 3 March 2026. allafrica.com
24. Wakat Séra, installation of the bureau of Togo’s Senate, 3 April 2025. wakatsera.com
25. Alice Lawson, Reuters via TimesLive, “Togo leader gets new role without term limits, opposition calls it a coup”, 6 May 2025. timeslive.co.za
26. Salif D. Cheickna, Fraternité Matin, “Togo : Jean-Lucien Savi de Tové élu président de la République, Faure Gnassingbé prend la tête du Conseil des ministres”, 3 May 2025. fratmat.info
27. Erick Kaglan and Mark Banchereau (AP), ConstitutionNet, “Togo’s president faces calls to resign after protests over new constitutional role”, 11 June 2025. constitutionnet.org
28. Media Foundation for West Africa, “Bloody crackdown on protests in Togo: 7 dead, over 60 arrested”, 1 July 2025. mfwa.org
29. Wikipedia, “2025 Togolese Gen Z protests” (compilation of press reports), accessed 29 October 2026. en.wikipedia.org
30. KOACI, “Togo : municipales 2025, la CENI proclame les résultats provisoires, UNIR vainqueur”, 21 July 2025. koaci.com
31. KOACI, “Togo : premier gouvernement de la 5e République, 27 ministres, des précisions”, 9 October 2025. koaci.com
32. Agence Ecofin, “Togo unveils first cabinet of its Fifth Republic, cementing parliamentary shift”, October 2025. ecofinagency.com
33. RFLD, “Lomé, le rendez-vous d’un bicamérisme inauguré : comment 30 femmes leaders ont outillé la participation politique au Togo”, May 2026. rflgd.org
34. RFLD, “Announcement: Youth consultation on political participation in anticipation of the 2026 general elections in Benin”, 2025. rflgd.org
35. RFLD, “Dialogue et action : le REFELA et le RFLD s’unissent pour la participation des femmes en politique au Bénin”. rflgd.org
36. RFLD, “Spotlighting women’s leadership for political equality in Benin: RFLD grant empowers REFELA”. rflgd.org
37. RFLD, “This week RFLD equips 110 women leaders across Francophone West Africa”. rflgd.org