Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what representations he has made to his Benin counterpart on the imposition of a law in that country requiring any (a) candidate and (b) party wishing to stand in its parliamentary elections to pay an upfront fee equivalent to £340,000.

​The British Government has not made representations to the Government of Benin regarding the new electoral law passed on 3 September 2019. The British Government nevertheless continues to encourage Benin to continue to reform its electoral processes in advance of the 2019 parliamentary elections in order to further safeguard and consolidate the country's positive democratic progress.