The ritual is immutable in Equatorial Guinea: the State organizes a presidential election and, after the opening of the ballot boxes, the name of Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo systematically appears on more than 93% of the ballots. At the head of a coalition of 15 parties led by his all-powerful Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE), the Head of State in power since 1979 was therefore re-elected unsurprisingly for a 6th term, this time with a triumphant official score of 94.9% in the November 20 election.
“The National Electoral Commission proclaims the candidate Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of Equatorial Guinea for the next 7 years”, Faustino Ndong Esono Eyang, President of this Commission announced on Saturday, specifying that the participation was established at 98%.
A particularly repressed opposition
The PDGE and its coalition also won all 100 seats for deputies and 55 for senators at stake in the legislative and local elections which were held simultaneously. The PDGE, which had 99 seats in the outgoing National Assembly, therefore even won a deputy.
The percentages obtained by the opposition candidates, Andrés Esono Ondo of Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), the only opposition party which is not banned, and Bonaventura Monsuy Asumu, of the Social Democratic Coalition Party (PCSD) , were not disclosed. They won 9,684 and 2,855 votes respectively, in one of the most closed and authoritarian regimes in the world where the opposition remains repressed and muzzled.
“The final election results once again prove us right. Obiang Nguema Mbasogo re-elected president with 94.9% of the vote, which is equivalent to 405,910 votes. We continue to prove that we are a great political party, ”wrote on Twitter his son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, alias Teodorin, vice-president of the country and tipped to succeed him.
President since a coup in 1979
A total of 427,661 Equatoguineans out of 1.4 million inhabitants were registered on the electoral lists of this country led by Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who holds the record for longevity of heads of state in office, excluding monarchs. The 80-year-old president seized power in a coup in 1979 in this country that has been independent of Spain since 1968. His regime is regularly accused by international NGOs and Western capitals of repressing all opposition and flouting human rights, and blamed for endemic corruption.
Third oil producer and third richest country in sub-Saharan Africa by GDP per capita in 2021, according to the World Bank, the bulk of the wealth of Equatorial Guinea, whose currency is the CFA Franc, remains concentrated in the hands of a few. The Bretton Woods institution has no recent data on the country but it estimated in 2006 that nearly 80% of the population lived below the poverty line.