Equatorial Guinea
Hasty call for presidential elections in Equatorial Guinea

afrol News, 29 October - As his term is slowly running out, Equatoguinean President Teodoro Obiang Nguema surprises the opposition with a call for anticipated presidential elections; maybe as early as 15 December. The move would be "unconstitutional" and only designed to prolong dictatorship, the opposition claims.

During the weekend, the Equatorial Guinea's Minister of the Interior maintained a series of meetings with representatives of the few legal political parties of the country to fix a date for the presidential elections. While the government had proposed to organise the elections on 15 December this year, the opposition had insisted on 15 February. 

The protest of these opposition parties consulted by the government is surprising, as they barely present the real opposition to the regime of President Obiang. Most official opposition parties have been infiltrated by the ruling PDGE party, while others have been illegalised, not legalised or simply dissolved. 

The non-parliamentary ("terrorist" - according to government rhetoric) opposition has stated even stronger protest to the plans of an anticipated poll. Comments generally reflect the impossibility of making political campaigns during the legal insecurity throughout the country and the environment of fear among the population.

According to the Spanish Association of Solidarity with Equatorial Guinea (ASODEGUE), the government's proposal further is contrary to Equatoguinean law. The electoral code, according to ASODEGUE, "establishes that the date of the presidential elections shall be between 45 days before and 60 days after the seventh anniversary of the President's taking of office." 

The previous presidential elections took place on 25 February 1996 and President Obiang took office in April the same year. This, according to the group's interpretation of Equatoguinean law, was to say, "the presidential elections could not be arranged before 15 February 2003."

In any case, the few opposition parties that will be allowed to present candidates in the elections remain without knowing which date will be set for the poll. After the conversations this maintained weekend, one did not reach any agreement and now the decision probably will be taken personally by the proper President, the legal opposition parties fear. If the election date thus will be set at 15 December, this would have to be decreed publicly by 1 November, they say.

The Grouping for Social Democracy (CPDS), the only legal opposition party in Equatorial Guinea that has resisted government party infiltration, yesterday reacted strongly to the plans of an anticipated presidential poll. 

A CPDS statement stated the party's concerns these upcoming elections and denounces the "strange climate" in which they are set to be carried out. This "obviously" would include "irregular electoral rolls, deprivation of the freedom of movement for political parties of the real opposition, negation of access to state mass media to parties not close to the [ruling] PDGE, etc."

The CPDS itself is bitterly aware of the poor state of "the strange climate" currently found in Equatorial Guinea. Its own Secretary-General, Plácido Micó, remains in prison, being accused of and convicted for participating in the alleged planning of a coup d'état. He is one of 68 opposition leaders that were sentenced to prison terms in June over this alleged coup plot in a case that caused international indignation.

The party meanwhile has named Celestino B. Bacale - not sentenced in the June trial - as its candidate to the Equatoguinean presidency. Mr Bacale is currently visiting Europe (Spain and France) and the United States to discuss the upcoming elections with government officials. He is also scheduled to meet with representatives of the European Union.

Further, the illegal Progress Party (PP), based in Equatorial Guinea, has already named its leader, Severo Moto, as candidate to the presidency, whatever poll date is set. A PP communiqué however asks "the international community to assist so that it finally will be possible to celebrate true elections in the country." Mr Moto's candidacy will, in practical terms, however go unnoticed in Equatorial Guinea. In June, he was sentenced to a 101-years jail term in absentia for his alleged coup plans.

The militant union of exiled Equatoguinean opposition parties, RENAGE, goes further in its critique, calling the anticipated poll "illegal and anti-democratic". Samuel Mbá Mombé of RENAGE mentions a very long list of systematic human rights violations by the Obiang regime, summing up that fair elections could not be organised when government was in a "state of war against its own population."

ASODEGUE adds that, "behind this decision by the dictator, there is an intention to obstruct as much as possible the campaign of the competing candidate," Mr Bacale of the CPDS, "and the recognition, once again, that Mr Obiang and his alikes are incapable of winning elections that are legally summoned and organised."

President Obiang has been the Equatoguinean Head of State since 1979, when he toppled and later had killed his uncle, the infamous dictator Macías Nguema. He was first elected in 1996, in what his government called multi-party elections, but which have been generally denounced as fraudulent. 

In the 1996 presidential elections, Mr Obiang according to official numbers had obtained 98 percent of the votes. Systematic obstruction of the electoral campaigns of the other candidates, including arrests and torture, had left Mr Obiang the only candidate. 

Equally, in the legislative elections held in March 1999, electoral monitors concluded on systematic irregularities. The electorate was not allowed to vote unmonitored and opposition observers were expelled from the poll stations. The ruling PDGE won the elections, obtaining 75 of the 83 seats in parliament, while CPDS and another party obtained eight seats - which they have refused to take up. 

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

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