Equatorial Guinea opposition dispute Obiang’s huge election victory

Nairobi, Nov 27 (EFE).- Equatorial Guinea’s main opposition party on Sunday criticized the results of a recent election that handed a landslide victory to Teodoro Obiang, the world’s longest-serving president.

The result of the November 20 election, published Saturday, gave 80-year-old Obiang 94.9% of the vote.

The opposition Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS) party has disputed the result, pointing out that the number of valid ballots was lower than the official vote share for the three candidates.

“It’s not right,” a party source told Efe on the condition of anonymity.

“The fraud has been systematic,” they added in a telephone call from the capital of the oil-rich nation, Malabo.

Obiang, in power since 1979, garnered 405,910 of the 411,081 votes as the candidate for the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE), a big tent coalition.

After Obiang came Andrés Esono, from the CDPS, with 9,684 votes and Buenaventura Monsuy Asumu, from a small coalition aligned with Obiang’s party, with 2,855.

The number of official votes according to the electoral commission is 411,081, lower than the results shared out between candidates — 418,449.

“It’s all botched,” Esono told Efe during the Socialist International congress taking place in Madrid.

“They’ve spent seven days trying to make the numbers work, taking votes from us and adding them to Obiang,” he said. EFE

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