Equatorial Guinea - November 2022

Equatorial Guinea is a consolidated authoritarian regime, so it was not a surprise that President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo was declared the winner of the presidential election on 20 November. Already in power for 43 years, the 80-year-old was elected to a seven-year term. The official results awarded him 94.5 per cent of the valid votes, with 43 per cent of the voting age population participating in the election. He has never received less than 93 per cent of the votes for the president. His political party, the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) also won all 100 seats in the lower chamber of the legislature and all 55 seats in the upper chamber. The leader of the only legal opposition party (Andrés Esono Ondo of the Convergence for Social Democracy) denounced the election as fraudulent. However, the African Union electoral observation mission stated that “the general elections were in accordance with international standards and the national legal framework governing those elections.”

Sources: Le Figaro, The National, France24, African Union, International IDEA