CHAPTER TWO: HISTORICAL CONTEXT AND CURRENT CHALLENGES __________________________________________________________________________ attitude to adopt towards the protestors and opponents. The whole country was paralysed. 62. The social and political unrest compelled President Mathieu Kérékou to abandon the Marxist-Leninist ideology and accept the institution of a National and Sovereign Conference of the Bone and Sinew of the Nation, the first of its kind in Africa. Convened in Cotonou in February 1990, the conference established transitional bodies: a president of the republic, a prime minister, a head of government, and the HCR. The HCR served at the same time as a legislative assembly and a constitutional court. Finally, a constitutional committee was set up to draft a new constitution, which was approved by referendum on 2 December 1990. 63. Long considered to be the ‘sick child’ of Africa because of its chronic instability, the Republic of Benin thus became a pioneer of the democratisation movement in Africa. Indeed, after 17 years of the MarxistLeninist military regime, Benin had initiated a wave of national conferences, with which about 12 countries in the continent had experimented. 2.3 The period of democratic renewal of the 1990s4 64. Following the National Sovereign Conference, a transitional government was formed in 1990. It paved the way for a return to democracy and multiparty politics. Prime Minister Nicéphore Soglo defeated Kérékou in the presidential election of March 1991. He reinstated voodoo in order to win the support of traditional authorities and made 10 January of each year a National Voodoo Day. 65. However, the SAP and reduction in public expenditure recommended by the IMF, coupled with the deepening of the economic crisis in the wake of the devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994, revived popular discontent. After losing his majority in the Legislative Assembly, President Soglo, accused of nepotism by his opponents, was defeated by Mathieu Kérékou in the presidential election of 17 March 1996. Following the resignation of Prime Minister Adrien Houngbédji in May 1998, President Kérékou assumed the functions both of head of state and prime minister. In any case, he had created the post of prime minister more for reasons of political expediency at the time than for constitutional reasons, since the constitution makes no provision for this position. 66. During the 2001 elections at the end of his mandate, President Kérékou won the first ballot ahead of his predecessor, Nicéphore Soglo. With the withdrawal of Soglo and that of the other two candidates – who described the ballot as a “farce” – Mathieu Kérékou was re-elected as president of the republic, with 84.06% of the votes, in March 2001. 4 Text adapted from the article by INSAE, ‘History of Benin’. www.insae-bj.org. 47