Obiang on course for huge win in Eq Guinea's criticized poll

Nov 30, 2009, 13:03 GMT

Nairobi/Malabo - Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Obiang Nguema is headed for a massive election win with 96.7 per cent of votes counted so far cast in his favour, election officials said Monday.

Obiang, 67, has ruled with an iron fist since seizing power from his uncle in a 1979 coup. Observers say his habit of suppressing opposition and violating basic human rights has continued into this election.

In a statement on the Information Ministry website, the head of the electoral commission - also interior minister in Obiang's government - Clemente Engonga Nguema said a partial ballot count from 296 of 1,324 polling stations gave the president 56,463 votes.

His nearest rival - Placid Mico Abogo, of the Convergence for Social Democracy party - received 431 votes, or 0.7 per cent of the ballots counted.

Of the three other candidates, two received 26 votes each and one received 33 votes, the information ministry said.

Final results are expected at some point between Thursday and next Monday.

Mico Abongo said after polls closed on Sunday he would not accept the result, claiming government agents carried out the voting and some polling stations closed early.

However, Engonga Nguema rejected claims of irregularities.

'There are no outstanding important problems concerning the proceedings, the elections were carried out in an atmosphere of peace and tranquility,' he said.

Obiang has set a final target of 97 per cent of the vote, which would be a virtual repeat of his 2002 victory, when he won 97.1 per cent.

His Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) has strolled to victory in all elections since multiparty politics was introduced - at least nominally - in 1991, and holds 99 out of 100 seats in parliament.

Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders said last week that the meager opposition in the country had been harassed and given virtually no coverage in the the state-run media.

Election observers from African Union and Economic Community of Central African States are subject to rules that compromise their efforts to monitor the election, Human Rights Watch said.

Obiang has long faced charges of human rights abuses and of stripping his country of its wealth.

Equatorial Guinea became Africa's third-largest oil producer behind Nigeria and Angola after the discovery of oil and gas deposits in the mid-1990s.

US companies buy up a large percentage of Equatorial Guinea's 250,000 barrels per day and the government is in negotiations with Germany's E.ON AG to develop its gas resources.

Transparency International regularly ranks the nation as one of the most corrupt in the world in its annual corruption index - this year placing it twelfth from the bottom on its 180-nation list.

Obiang and his son Teodorin both faced investigation into their multimillion-dollar foreign assets, in France and the United States respectively, but no charges have been filed.