E Guinea Holds Presidential Vote

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema

One of Africa's largest oil producers, Equatorial Guinea, is holding a presidential election.

Human rights and opposition groups say the vote is unlikely to be free and fair and will see the current re-elected.

President Obiang Nguema won the last election with 97% of the vote.

The government is ranked as one of the world's most corrupt, and opposition parties complain of frequent harassment.

Equatorial Guinea's earnings from oil and gas should give its population of 600,000 people a theoretical income of $37,000 a year each.

But most Equatorial Guineans live in poverty after 15 years of plentiful oil production.

Monitoring limits
Government funds have been given to other candidates, but the governing party dominates state media, the interior minister runs the election commission and the electoral roll has been kept secret.

There are some election monitors from the African Union and the Economic Community of Central African States, but they have to follow a government programme when going about their business and have to square any pronouncements with the interior ministry.

Many foreign media have been refused visas to cover the election.

The government of President Obiang Nguema has hired American lobbying companies to burnish the country's unsavoury reputation and says it will guarantee an open electoral process.

Human Rights Watch describes Equatorial Guinea's government as one of the most corrupt and abusive in the world.

But international investors remain firmly attached to the oil and gas wealth of this tiny African nation.

Normally a secretive state, Equatorial Guinea made headlines in October with the pardoning of a group South African and British mercenaries headed by Simon Mann who had been jailed for attempting a coup.

Source: BBC