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Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Africa’s longest-serving ruler, is poised to prolong his stay in the oil-rich region amid opposition accusations of vote irregularities. The country has been in power for 43 years.
In previous elections, Obiang has never received less than 90% of the vote, and one of the two opposition candidates said that the ruling party appeared to be engaging in electoral fraud again.
Andres Esono told reporters his party has been receiving complaints from across the central African country, with many voters saying they were forced to vote in public rather than in secret.
“What he’s doing is massive fraud, even worse than before,” Esonor said of the 80-year-old incumbent.
Essonor is one of only two candidates running against Obiang. The country’s 14 opposition parties have joined an alliance with the authoritarian regime, which critics have long accused of torture and corruption.
The incumbent expressed optimism about the outcome of the election after voting alongside his wife, Constancia Mangue de Obiang.
“I am sure the victory belongs to the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea,” he said.
On the streets of the capital, Malabo, in recent weeks, Obiang’s posters have flooded public spaces, reading: “Vote for the right way, vote for continuity.” Only a handful of opposition posters were seen.
At his final campaign event in Mongomo last week, the president yelled at the crowd: “Who’s your daddy?” He urged voters to keep him in power, warning of the risk of political instability.
Although Equatorial Guinea is wealthy, there is a huge gap between its privileged ruling class and the majority of the population that lives primarily on subsistence agriculture.
Obiang seized power in a 1979 coup that overthrew the country’s first president since independence from Spain in 1968.
Critics say Obiang built a system of corruption unparalleled in Africa and forfeited a rare opportunity to lift his people out of poverty when oil reserves swelled the country’s gross domestic product by more than 5,000%.
Human rights groups say his regime has resorted to intimidation, torture and executions, and even hunted down opponents and alleged coup plotters in other countries and forcibly returned them to Equatorial Guinea, where they were sentenced to death.
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