Following World War II, the territory began to elect members to the French National Assembly.
The final French National Assembly election in Dahomey was held in 1956, with the PRD and GEN each winning a seat.
It also won the 1959 elections, despite receiving fewer votes than the Dahomeyan Democratic Union (UDD), which emerged as the smallest of the three parties in the legislature.
The newly established Dahomeyan Unity Party won all 60 seats following changes to the electoral system by President Hubert Maga.
Following a military coup, attempts were made to reintroduce democracy; presidential elections were held in May 1968, but the results were invalidated due to insufficient voter turnout.
The military government subsequently appointed Émile Derlin Zinsou as president, but he took the post on the condition that he was approved by voters.
Although they were won by Justin Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin, this was due to the results in Atakora being annulled, denying Hubert Maga victory.
In order to prevent a civil war, Ahomadégbé-Tomêtin, Maga and the other main candidate Sourou-Migan Apithy agreed to form a three-member presidential council.
A National Revolutionary Assembly was established in 1977, and one-party elections were held in 1979, 1984 and 1989, before multi-party democracy was reintroduced at the start of the 1990s.
UTRD candidate Nicéphore Soglo subsequently won the presidential elections in March, beating incumbent Mathieu Kérékou in a runoff.
With third-place Adrien Houngbédji also refusing to participate, Kérékou faced Bruno Amoussou in the second round, winning with 84% of the vote.
Voters were presented with a single list of the ruling People's Revolutionary Party of Benin's candidates to vote for or against.
Government ministers, people working for businesses subsidised by state funds, people holding non-elected public office, involved in the military or working for foreign government or international organisations are not allowed to contest to stand as candidates.