Equatorial Guinea’s authoritarian leader, who has been in power longer than any other leader in the world, has been re-elected as president.
Officials stated six days after the election that Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 80, had received nearly 95% of the vote.
Vice President and President’s son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue declared, “The results confirm us right again. We continue to be a great party.”
Although a few opposition candidates were running, they had little chance of victory.
The oil-rich nation in central Africa is tightly controlled by President Obiang, who has family members serving in high positions.
He has been in power since 1979, when he took it by a military coup, and has weathered multiple efforts to remove him from office.
After succeeding his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema as president, he instituted some changes but ultimately allowed Nguema to maintain absolute power in the country.
Since the government owns or controls all broadcast media, political opposition is severely restricted, and the free press is nonexistent.
President Obiang, who has refuted allegations of human rights violations and election cheating in the past, is expected to utilise his sixth term to repair his international reputation.
The administration abolished the death penalty in September, which was hailed by the United Nations.
Critics have long accused Equatorial Guinea of producing election results that were manipulated.
With Francisco Macias Nguema as its first president, Spanish Guinea established the independent Republic of Equatorial Guinea in 1968.
Rights groups have branded Francisco Macias Nguema and his successor Teodoro Obiang Nguema as human rights violators on par with the worst African offenders.
Despite the country’s rich oil reserves, discovered in 1996, most of its 1.4 million inhabitants continue to live in poverty.
