Obiang nearly gets all the votes

2008-05-05 21:37

Malabo - The ruling party of hardline President Teodoro Obiang Nguema got nearly 100% of the vote in elections in oil-rich Equatorial Guinea, according to first official results on Monday.

The West African state voted on Sunday in parliamentary and local elections whose outcome was a foregone conclusion for observers, amid opposition charges of voting irregularities and harassment.

According to first partial official results, the president's Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) won 100% of the vote in some constituencies in the election to parliament.

At Moka, in the south of Bioko island, near Malabo, the PDGE got 100% of the vote. In Mongomo, the president's home district, more than half of the 44 voting stations had reported that all votes wento to Obiang's party.

The opposition Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS) party's best result was in Luba district, in southern Bioko, where it had 0.7% of the vote.

Final results are expected on May 20.

Ruling with an iron fist

Obiang has been in power for nearly 30 years, ruling with an iron fist, and incurring past criticism for alleged human rights abuses.

He seized power in a 1979 coup and his PDGE has won every election since a multi-party system was introduced in 1991.

With an overall population of one million, some 278 000 people were eligible to vote. But the opposition said on Sunday it had registered many irregularities.

The "elections are nothing but a repetition of what the government has always done," said Placido Mico Abogon, secretary general of the CPDS.

"They went just like the previous ones....we recorded a series of arbitrary procedures in many polling stations," he said.

"Ballot papers disappeared from some polling stations, others were not replaced when they ran out. Our representatives had to put up with harassment," he reported.

73rd richest country

The CPDS has two seats in outgoing parliament. One hundred parliamentary seats and 230 municipal councillor posts were at stake on Sunday.

Equatorial Guinea, a former Spanish colony, currently ranks as sub-Saharan Africa's third crude oil producer and has had double digit economic growth for several years. But the population enjoys little of the wealth generated.

Most live in dire poverty and the country ranks 127th out of 177 countries in the UN Development Programme's human development index rankings, despite a per capita gross domestic product of $7 874 making it the 73rd richest country in the world.

- AFP