Hon. Charles Djrekpo

Charles Djrekpo is a former Beninese member of parliament. He now serves as NDI resident senior legislative advisor in the DRC.

Mr. Djrekpo is a former Member of Parliament in his native Benin, where he was elected for two consecutive terms in the 1990s. During his first elected term, Mr. Djrekpo served as vice-president for the Legal, Administrative and Human Rights Commission in Parliament and, during his second elected term, as leader of the Alternance Démocratique coalition. Since 1989, Mr. Djrekpo has been a member of the executive bureau of the Social Democratic Party.  In addition to his political career, Mr. Djrekpo was a law professor at the University of Abomey Calavi in Benin for more than 10 years, specializing in administration, electoral law, and social legislation. Respected for his expertise on electoral processes—as evidenced through many publications and conference presentations—Mr. Djrekpo was chosen to preside over the Beninese Electoral Commission during the 2001 presidential elections. Mr. Djrekpo also co-authored legislation for electoral reform in Benin and the country's Political Party Law.

In recent years, Mr. Djrekpo participated in several consulting and pro-bono assignments in Central and West Africa for such groups as UNDP, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, and NDI. In January 2003 Mr. Djrekpo gave a presentation at an NDI-organized conference in Kinshasa on a new political party law. Mr. Djrekpo’s presentation included an overview on “Political Parties: Mission and Responsibilities in the Democratization Process,” and a discussion of “Internal and External Conflict Resolution Clauses.”

Mr. Djrekpo joined NDI full time in May 2006 as Senior Program Manager for Legislative Strengthening. Since that time he has met extensively with the Political, Administrative, and Judicial (PAJ) committee of the Transitional Assembly and with the newly elected deputies of the National Assembly who were seated in September.  Most recently he conducted a seminar on November 13 with 68 deputies of the National Assembly to discuss the missions and responsibilities of parliamentary caucuses, and is preparing for a seminar on the statute of the opposition, to be held in January