Equatorial Guinea ruling party wins 99% of votes in early results

MALABO, Equatorial Guinea

Preliminary election results released by Equatorial Guinea’s government on Monday showed the ruling party winning over 99 percent of votes counted so far in presidential, legislative, and municipal elections held on Sunday, November 20.

The tiny oil-producing Central African state is run by 80-year-old President Teodoro Obiang, the world’s longest-ruling head of state, who is seeking to extend his 43 years in office.

Equatorial Guinea has had only two presidents since independence from Spain in 1968; Obiang and his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema, who he removed in a coup in 1979.

This time, two opposition candidates are standing in the way of a sixth term for the president: Buenaventura Monsuy Asumu, who has run in the previous five elections, and Andrés Esono Ondo, who is running for the first time.

Early partial results showed Obiang’s ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) and coalition with 67,012 votes out of 67,196 counted so far. The count will continue on Monday, said a statement on the government website.

More than 400,000 people registered to vote in the country of about 1.5 million, which is split between the island of Bioko in the Gulf of Guinea and a coastal mainland sandwiched between Cameroon and Gabon.

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“It is a total fraud,” Esono Ondo told Reuters by phone, saying his party would challenge the result in court.

He said some semblance of fair voting was taking place in the island capital Malabo, but his party had evidence that officials elsewhere were casting ballots on voters’ behalf or forcing them to vote for the ruling party.

Government and officials of Equatorial Guinea’s election directorate could not be reached for comment.

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Maja Bovcon, a senior Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft, said the election outcome was in no doubt: “The closure of the borders and the harassment and arrests of opposition supporters have been paving the way for the extension of Obiang’s 43-year rule.”

The United States and the European Union called for a free and fair election and raised concern over reports of harassment and intimidation of the opposition and civil society groups. The government rejected the accusations as interference in its electoral process.

Closing his campaign on Friday, Obiang said he decided to bring the presidential election forward by several months and hold it together with the legislative and municipal elections, to save money due to the economic crisis.

Oil and gas production accounts for around three quarters of revenues in the OPEC member state. But output has dwindled in recent years to around 93,000 barrels per day (bpd), from around 160,000 bpd in 2015, as oil fields mature.