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     Small country, big example
     小国家大典范

     Mar 16th 2006 | PORTO-NOVO
     From The Economist print edition
     Still an unusual success for democracy—★fingers crossed[1]
     ON March 5th, Benin went to the polls for the fourth presidential election since multi-party democracy was introduced in 1990: no mean achievement in west Africa. Even more impressive was the fact that President Mathieu Kérékou did not ★stand for[2] re-election, nor did his great rival, Nicéphore Soglo, who was president from 1991-96. Both have passed the constitution's age l_______① of 70. （1）That respect for the constitution goes admirably against Africa's trend for heads of state to change the law to stay even longer in office.
     Benin has fewer than 8m people. It is one of the p______② countries on earth. And yet, in Africa, it is also a democratic ★exemplar[3]. Many of Africa's former French colonies brought in multi-party democracy only when forced to by the French—in return for more aid—in June 1990. （2）Having abandoned Marxism, Mr Kérékou, Benin's president and military ruler, not only legalised opposition parties several months before then, but also ★stood down[4] after his electoral defeat to Mr Soglo in 1991. So Benin became the first African country where an incumbent ran for re-election, lost and graciously ★bowed out[5]. Since then, d_________③ has implanted itself strongly in the minds of Benin's citizens. “Our history is so terrible, with coups and years of problems, that now we all care about democracy very deeply,” says one of them.


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