Teodoro Obiang Nguema is holding a press conference following his early-month vote. On Saturday, election officials in Equatorial Guinea announced that Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo had been re-elected to a sixth term as president.
Obiang has been given a six-term presidential nomination in Equatorial Guinea
He pulled 94.9 percent of the votes cast, or 98 percent turnout. The longest-serving head of state outside of monarchies is 80-year-old Obiang, who seized power in a coup in 1979. He has never received less than 93 percent of the vote and been declared elected again.
Obiang will continue in the top position for another seven years, according to the head of the electoral commission, Faustino Ndong Esono Eyang. The commission reported that 98 percent of voters participated in the election.
The outcome was widely anticipated in the oil-rich, autocratic nation of central Africa, where the political opposition is feeble. A coalition of 15 parties, including Obiang's all-powerful ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, supported him (PDGE).
The PDGE won every seat in the National Assembly and Senate as well. Until 1991, it was the only authorized political party in the nation.
The percentages won by the opposition candidates, Andres Esono Ondo of Convergence for Social Democracy and Buenaventura Monsuy Asumu of the Social Democratic Coalition Party, who received relatively few votes, were not made public.
Obiang has been in power in Equatorial Guinea for more than 43 years. He overthrew his uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, who was killed by the firing squad.
He has put down dissent and resisted numerous coup attempts. In the weeks before the elections, members of the opposition were detained by security forces.
According to the regime, this was done to thwart a "conspiracy" to carry out attacks in the capital Malabo and the business district Bata.
Before the election, the authorities also closed the nation's land borders with the neighboring countries of Gabon and Cameroon, claiming that this would prevent spies from interfering with the election.
Since gaining independence from Spain, its colonial power for nearly two centuries, in 1968, Obiang became only Equatorial Guinea's second president.
Wealthy, Polarized, and Corrupt
Equatorial Guinea will be the third-richest nation in sub-Saharan Africa in terms of per-capita income in 2021, thanks to the discovery of offshore oil in the mid-1990s.
However, a small number of families continue to hold the majority of the wealth. The World Bank stated that when the oil boom peaked in 2006, above 75 percent of the population lived below $1.90 per day in extreme poverty.
But, unfortunately, there are no new statistics to report. For example, in the 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index published by Transparency International, Equatorial Guinea is ranked 172 out of 180 countries.
