The World Briefly

November 23, 2022

A Sure Thing

Equatorial Guinea

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The party of incumbent President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo won Equatorial Guinea’s elections this week in a landslide victory that cements the aging president’s place as the world’s longest-ruling leader, VICE reported.

Preliminary results of Sunday’s general elections showed the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) secured 99 percent of the vote.

Obiang, 80, has ruled the small, oil-rich central African nation since 1979 after seizing power from his uncle Francisco Macías Nguema, the country’s first president following independence from Spain.

Since then, he has won every election with an overwhelming majority while also cracking down on any opposition. Human rights organizations have accused the government of arbitrary detention and torture.

One of the presidential candidates running in this election, Andres Enono, alleged that authorities intimidated voters in the capital.

Meanwhile, Obiang’s family and close associates are known to live a lavish lifestyle in a country where 67 percent of the population is poor.

Last year, France’s highest court upheld the conviction of the president’s son and vice president, Teodorin, for fraud and embezzlement. Authorities in the US, France and Switzerland have also confiscated property belonging to him worth millions of dollars.

Teodorin – who many believe will succeed his father – has denied all wrongdoing.

This story originally appeared in the November 23, 2022 newsletter, The Little Country That Could.