Equatorial Guinea votes with veteran ruler poised to extend 43 years in power

Equatorial Guinea went to the polls, with President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who has been in power for more than 43 years, all-but certain of winning a record sixth term in what is one of the most authoritarian and enclosed states in the world.

The 80-years-old has had the longest tenure of any living head of state today except for monarchs. Obiang’s re-election seems virtually assured in the West African country with next to no opposition. Running against Obiang is the 61-year-old Andres Esono Ondo from the Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS), the nation’s only tolerated opposition party. Ondo, who is the sole representative of the muzzled opposition, has said he fears “fraud” during voting to elect the president, senators and members of parliament. The government has leveled its own accusations against the politician, in 2019, accusing him of planning “a coup in Equatorial Guinea with foreign funding.” The third candidate is Buenaventura Monsuy Asumu of the Social Democratic Coalition Party (PCSD), a historic ally of Obiang’s ruling party.

As in every election year, security forces have stepped up arrests. State media has justified the crackdown as a bid to counter a “foiled plot” by the opposition to carry out attacks on embassies, petrol stations and the homes of ministers. In September, after a week-long siege, security forces stormed the home of one of Obiang’s main opponents, Gabriel Nse Obiang Obono, leaving five dead, according to the government.

Members of the opposition, most of whom are in exile, hold no hope for a breakthrough at the ballot box. “Obiang’s elections have never been free or democratic but marked by widespread and systematic… fraud,” they said in a joint statement. The country has a long-established reputation internationally for graft, ranking 172 out of 180 nations on Transparency International’s 2021 Corruption Perceptions Index.