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Two candidates will contest in Equatorial Guinea on November 20 against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The incumbent is seeking a sixth term in office after more than 43 years at the helm of this small central African country, which he rules with an iron fist.
Two candidates will contest in Equatorial Guinea on November 20 against President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. The incumbent is seeking a sixth term in office after more than 43 years at the helm of this small central African country, which he rules with an iron fist.
Re-elected in 2016 with more than 93.7% of the vote, Obiang, at 80, holds the world record for longevity in power for a living elected head of state. Equatorial Guinea is in hydrocarbons and is one of the most closed and authoritarian states in the world.
The National Electoral Commission (CEN) closed the nomination period for the presidential, legislative, senatorial, and municipal elections, scheduled for the same day, and officially proclaimed the contestants.
Andrès Esono Ondo will be the candidate of the Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS). Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE), the only party in 1991 in the former Spanish colony, has been in power ever since the country got independence from Spain. It holds 99 of the 100 seats in the outgoing National Assembly and all 55 seats in the Senate.
The police have been ruthlessly arresting and imprisoning opponents on the grounds that they have foiled a “plot” by the opposition that planned “attacks” against “gas stations, Western embassies and the homes of ministers.
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Human rights activists, such as Anacleto Micha Ndong Nlang, and a popular rapper critical of the government, Leoncio Prisco Eko Mba, alias Adjoguening, the Cameroon-based Network of Human Rights Defenders in Central Africa (REDHAC) denounced the wave of repression aimed at silencing the population in the run-up to the elections. Political analysts are of the view that the incumbent president retaining the seat is a foregone conclusion.
