The people of Benin voted on Sunday for a new parliament but without a single opposition candidate to choose from, as rights groups warn of a crackdown in a country once seen as a model for democracy.
Voters in the small West African state were given the choice to select their 83 members of parliament from two parties both allied to President Patrice Talon.
The country's main opposition parties, effectively barred from fielding candidates by tough new eligibility rules, had asked their supporters to protest by boycotting the polls.
Many of the five million registered voters seemed to have stayed away, with streets quiet and turnout extremely slow at voting booths in the economic capital Cotonou.
In one polling station in the capital Porto-Novo, only five of the 261 registered voters had cast their ballots four hours after opening.
The situation seemed similar in other parts of Benin.
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In Attogon, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Cotonou, election officials explained that voters had gone to Sunday church, meaning few had cast ballots in the boxes.
In the run up to polling, protests were broken up by force. Internet access was tightly restricted with blocks on the main social media and messaging apps. In some opposition areas, internet access appeared to be shut down entirely.
Still, those who had voted encouraged others to follow.
"All is well," said Edith Avodagbe, a woman who had just voted. "I would like to ask my compatriots to come and do their duty by voting for the candidate of their choice." That choice, however, is limited.
Election watchdogs ruled last month that only the two parties allied to Talon -- the Republicans and Progressive Union -- met toughened conditions of admissibility under new electoral laws.
Their decision effectively barred the entire political opposition from fielding candidates.
People say they are "stunned" and "shocked" by the situation, but blanket bans on demonstrations ahead of voting has kept people off the streets.
Even after two ex-presidents, Nicephorus Soglo and Thomas Boni Yayi, urged people to take to the streets to protest, there was little response.
Late on Saturday, some roads were blocked by angry demonstrators in opposition areas.
"The wave of arbitrary arrests of political activists and journalists, and the crackdown on peaceful protests, have reached an alarming level," Amnesty International researcher Francois Patuel said, speaking ahead of the polls.
Before 1991, Benin struggled under decades of authoritarian rule. The transition to democracy brought a flowering of political competition -- five years ago, voters could chose from 20 parties for the 83 seats in parliament.
But this year, lawmakers from the ruling party pushed through a new electoral code.
Talon, elected in 2016, portrays himself as reformer and modernist. He has defended the electoral code, saying it would bring together the scores of political parties -- more than 250 parties in a country of some 12 million people -- into simpler blocs.
But critics say the rules were too tough and bureaucratic, and opposition parties failed to meet all the administrative requirements in time.
Several international and domestic observers scrapped their missions to monitor the polls. Some warn of the risk of unrest.
"Banning peaceful protests and detaining those who speak up against the exclusion of opposition parties from the legislative election will only fuel political turmoil," Amnesty's Patuel added.
The president is, however, apparently not worried. When polls close, there seems little doubt that the new parliament will back the presidency in its entirety.
"The resentment will pass," presidential spokesman Wilfried Houngbedji said. "On Monday, life will resume its normal course.
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