Cotonou hosts the inaugural sitting of the senate
The upper chamber of Benin’s parliament came together for its very first formal plenary session on Tuesday 15 September 2026, meeting at the institution’s temporary base in Cotonou. Working under the direction of senate president Patrice Talon, the senators gathered to put in place the organisational foundations this fledgling republican body needs in order to operate properly.
The chamber’s rulebook takes centre stage
Sitting at the top of the agenda for this opening gathering is the review and approval of the senate’s administrative and financial regulation. Once endorsed, that cornerstone text will establish the internal governance framework of the chamber, spell out how its resources are to be administered, and unlock the formal installation of the General Secretariat. That step will take over from the transitional arrangement handed on 8 September to administrator Édouard Ouin-Ouro.
Two former heads of state missing from the chamber
Even so, this first parliamentary meeting will stand out for the conspicuous absence of two towering figures in national political life, both former presidents of the Republic who sit in the upper assembly by right. Nicéphore Soglo and Thomas Boni Yayi are not taking part in Tuesday’s deliberations, having been kept away by health reasons.