43 Years After, African President Renews Mandate For Another 7 Years
OpenLife Nigeria reports that Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, president of Equatorial Guinea since August 1979, has won a re-election for another 7 years.
He won his re-election contest with with 94.9% votes on November 20.
Born on June 5, 1942, at Acoacán, Equatorial Guinea, Mbasog, a former military officer, founded Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea.
His party took all the senate and parliament seats and the 100 seats in the lower house, known as the Chamber of Deputies. The president can now appoint the remaining 15 senate seats. His son, Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, is the country’s Vice President.
This latest victory gave the 80 years old Mbasogo a sixth term in office, extending his 43-year rule and cementing his place as the world’s longest-standing ruler.
“The definitive results prove us right again,” the son who is the vice president tweeted. “We continue to prove to be a great political party!”
The West African country of around 1.5 million people has had only two presidents since independence from Spain in 1968. Obiang ousted his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema in a coup in 1979.
Obiang has always been elected with more than 90% of the vote in polls that international observers have questioned. Critics say Obiang has rigged elections and done little to drag the country out of poverty despite great personal wealth.
His son, who observers see as a potential successor, was convicted for embezzlement by a French court in 2020. Assets that foreign powers say he bought with ill-gotten gains include a crystal-covered glove worn by Michael Jackson, an armoured Rolls-Royce limousine and a yacht.
Equitorial Guinea’s economy is benefitting from higher hydrocarbon production and prices in 2022, but a sharp rise in food prices is stoking inflation. In the first half of 2022, real GDP rose by about 2 percent (y/y) buoyed by rising hydrocarbon output.
The current population of Equatorial Guinea is 1,513,210 as of Thursday, November 24, 2022, based on Worldometer elaboration of the latest United Nations data
The sector with the most potential is mining. Bauxite, iron ore, gold, and diamond mining represent key markets for Guinea and relatively well developed with tens of foreign companies actively producing and exporting minerals.
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