Equatorial Guinea
Legal Equatoguinean party barred from campaigning

afrol News, 1 October - The Equatoguinean opposition's most prominent presidential candidate, Celestino Bacale, and several party colleagues last Friday were conducting an electoral campaign in the town of Ebebiyin. The Governor of the district however presented them an order from the Interior Ministry, prohibiting their ongoing political tour.

Mr Bacale is the presidential candidate and interim leader of the Convergence for a Social Democracy (CPDS), the only legal opposition party in Equatorial Guinea that has resisted government party infiltration. CPDS Secretary-General, Plácido Micó, meanwhile, remains in prison, being accused of and convicted for participating in the alleged planning of a coup d'état along with 67 other opposition leaders in a disputed June trial. 

The CPDS tour, which began on 26 September, was designed to build and strengthen the local and regional party organisation ahead of the presidential polls, which are scheduled for the first months next year. Mr Bacale was also to encourage party supporters to register in the electoral roll, according to information released by the Spanish Association for Solidarity with Equatorial Guinea (ASODEGUE). 

The CPDS delegation had so far only visited the towns of Niefang and Micomeseng - east of Bata - in Rio Muni, the mainland part of Equatorial Guinea. Here, political meetings were organised in the private houses of local party leaders. The third stop was Ebebiyin, located at the Cameroonian and Gabonese border crossing in north-eastern Rio Muni. 

In order to avoid any pretext that could result in the prohibition of this tour, the group of CPDS leaders had limited the number of the Ebebiyin political meeting's participants to 50. According to ASODEGUE, the number of meeting participants however had become higher than anticipated by the opposition leaders. 

The explanation given for suspending the tour was because of "its electoral character at a moment when the election campaign has not officially begun." According to ASODEGUE, however, the probable government candidate to the presidency, incumbent President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, had been organising public rallies "for months" in addition to his regular appearances on public media to promote his candidacy. 

Celestino Bacale, on the other hand, has declared that the suspension responds "to the determination of the Equatoguinean authorities to avoid that I get in contact with the population."

This act has been made known only one week after the conclusion of the works of the so-called "Seminary of Democratic Coexistence", organised by the Equatoguinean Ministry of the Interior, which was attended to by leaders of the parties affiliated to the regime, opposition leaders and civilian and military authorities. 

During the sessions of the Seminary, which had been organised in all the districts of the country, instructions were given to the governmental delegates to facilitate the freedom of movement of all the candidates. They were further ordered to abstain from any abuse of office. 

The group of CPDS leaders meanwhile is reported to have initiated their return to the town of Bata. Mr Bacale however declared his intention to obtain permission to finalise the planned tour within short.

While the CPDS is the last democratic opposition party operating legally in Equatorial Guinea, systematic obstruction by the government - including the imprisonment of the party's Secretary-General - have made its operations increasingly difficult. Exiled opposition politicians have been critical to the CPDS operating within the legality defined by the Obiang regime, which, they hold, only could serve to legitimise the regime as they are not given any chance to get a hold on power.

Sources: Based on CPDS, ASODEGUE, press reports and afrol archives 

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