World’s longest-standing president seeks to increase 43-year rule By Reuters

DAKAR (Reuters) – Equatorial Guinea votes on Sunday in a common election wherein President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, the world’s longest-standing president, is anticipated to increase his 43-year rule on the helm of the tiny oil-producing West African nation.

Over 400,000 folks registered to vote within the nation of round 1.5 million. Voters can even forged ballots to elect 100 members of parliament for the decrease home, 55 of the nation’s 70 senators, and native mayors.

Observers anticipate no surprises. The 80-year-old Obiang has all the time been elected with over 90% of votes in polls whose equity worldwide observers have questioned given longstanding complaints by rights teams over an absence of political freedom.

He’s vying for a sixth time period in opposition to two opposition candidates – Buenaventura Monsuy Asumu, who’s operating for the sixth time in opposition to Obiang, and Andrés Esono Ondo, who’s operating for the primary time.

“The presidential election is totally devoid of suspense,” stated Maja Bovcon, a senior Africa analyst in danger intelligence firm Verisk (NASDAQ:) Maplecroft.

“The closure of the borders and the harassment and arrests of opposition supporters have been paving the way in which for the extension of Obiang’s 43-year rule,” she stated.

The USA and the European Union referred to as for a free and truthful election in separate statements, and raised considerations over experiences of harassments and intimidation of the opposition and civil society teams.

The federal government rejected the experiences, calling them interference in its electoral course of.

Equatorial Guinea has had solely two presidents since independence from Spain in 1968. Obiang ousted his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema in a coup in 1979.

Closing his marketing campaign on Friday, Obiang stated he determined to deliver the presidential election ahead by a number of months, and maintain it along with the legislative and municipal elections, to economize because of the financial disaster.

Oil and fuel manufacturing accounts for round three quarters of revenues within the OPEC member state. However output has dwindled lately to round 93,000 barrels per day (bpd), from round 160,000 bpd in 2015 because of maturing fields.