By Reine Azifan

COTONOU, Dec 9 (IPS) - In Benin's first municipal and council elections scheduled for Dec 15, eight percent of the candidates vying for the 1,119 council seats will be women. These elections are part of the government's decentralisation plan.

The candidate lists, compiled by the Independent National Electoral Commission, show that 482 women out of 5,709 candidates will contest the town council seats. Women account for nearly 52 percent of Benin's 6.8 million people.

The large number of women on the lists is the result of concerted mobilisation campaign by women's non-governmental organisation (NGOs).

The Network for the Integration of women and African Associations, the NGO Group for Women's Involvement in Sustainable Development and the Association of Women Jurists of Benin have played leading roles in persuading women to run.

The groups have used training, radio and television advertisements, and lobbied party leaders in getting women candidates to sign up.

The women were also trained in preparing and managing electoral campaigns, public speaking, and running city councils. They also have followed a course on decentralisation, the role of women, and on laws related to electoral process.

Pascaline Ahouilihoua, president of the Network for the Integration of women and African Associations, says the organisation has lobbied hard ''to increase the number of women in decision-making in Benin''.

While Ahouilihoua appreciates the group's success in fielding women candidates, she says ''we had hoped for many women candidates but à we started from zero to get at this level''.

''You can't change human behaviour one day. It's a long-term process that takes many years, and we don't intend to give up,'' she says.

Honorine Atikpa, president of the NGO Group for Women's Involvement in Sustainable Development, says Benin's ''political parties, dominated by men, don't like to offer women good positions''.

In Cotonou, Benin's economic capital, only two women managed to get to the top of their political parties' list, she says. Several women gave up, what they considered, ''an adventure'' for fear of failing, or of being put under a spell or of being expelled from their homes or of being rejected by their families.

Illiteracy also plays a major role in keeping women off the race. According to Beninoir law, one does not need to know how to read and write to run for town council seats, but a candidate should be literate to run for mayor. ''This legal provision is a hindrance since the party or group that fields a candidate, who does not have literacy skills, knows in advance that he or she will never be able to become mayor,'' says Atikpa.

''Although they remain candidates, many women continue to be subjected to pressures from all sides. That's why we've explained that we're not running to take the place of men or to rebel against them,'' says Atikpa.

Financial problems, too, reduce women's chances to run. The NGO Group for Women's Involvement in Sustainable Development has set up a fund for women candidates, but Beninoir election law does not allow NGOs to hand out money to candidates.

Women's attempts to run for mayor does not appear to worry male candidates, who feel assured in their belief that ''power is a male game''.

Hubert Akponikpe, a pro-government candidate, believes women's ''chances are already ruined since they will split their votes among the many female candidates standing.''

''Some women also don't support female candidates. Since they say women are always under the men's thumbs, they might as well vote for a man,'' says Akponikpe.

But he hopes that more women will be elected into office on Dec 15. '' Wherever there is a woman, things tend to work better. The campaign to get more of them on the electoral lists next time should be doubled,'' he says.

In Benin, only six women -- out of 83 legislators -- are members of parliament (MPs). And, only two women sit on a cabinet of 21 ministers.(END/IPS/AF/IP/TRA-FRE/RA/SZ/MN/02)