President Obiang runs again for office, seeking to extend record 43-year rule – The North Africa Post

President Teodoro Obiang of Equatorial Guinea, the world’s longest-standing leader, is running for office again in Sunday elections, as he wants to extend his 43-year authoritarian rule in the oil-rich Central African nation.

His party confirmed Obiang would run for the election on Sunday (20/11). The world’s longest-standing president is likely to extend his 43-year tenure that began when he snatched power in a 1979 coup. Obiang’s rule has been marred by torture of political opponents, sham election results, and corruption, rights group and foreign powers claim, charges Obiang denies.

Since independence from Spain in 1967, West Africa’s oil-producing nation of approximately 1.5 million people has only seen two presidents; Obiang (his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema), who he removed in a coup attempt in 1979.

Obiang was elected with more votes than 90%, a fact international observers have raised. Obiang is currently running for a sixth term against two other candidates, Andres Esono Oto and Buenaventura Montsuy Asumu. At the same time, local and parliamentary elections will be held.

About three quarters of the revenues in OPEC member states are derived from oil and gas production. The tiny nation of Gulf of Guinea has received major infrastructure investments. However, critics believe that Obiang’s oil wealth has allowed his entourage to live lavish lifestyles while the majority of the population is living in poverty. In 2020, his son, Vice President Teodoro Obiang Mangue, who observers consider a potential successor, got convicted by a French court for embezzlement.