World’s longest serving President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, has been sworn into office to begin a new sixth term of seven years following a landslide electoral win where he chalked up 98 percent of votes cast two weeks ago.
The 80-yr-old Obiang who has been in power since 1979, took the presidential oath on Friday before inspecting a military parade, promised to make Equitorial Guineans proud of their country despite the economic crisis in the tiny oil-rich central African nation.
Teodoro Obiang Obiang has been Equitorial Guinea’s head of state for 43 years after he overthrew the first president, Francisco Macias Nguema, who was his uncle and bloodthirsty dictator, whom he had shot two months later.
“The results prove us right again,” Vice-President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, the president’s son, said. “We continue to be a great party.”
Some opposition candidates stood, but none were expected to win.
President Obiang has a strong grip on the oil-rich central African nation, with family members in key government roles.
He seized power in 1979 after a military takeover and has survived several coup attempts.
Upon gaining office from his predecessor and uncle, Francisco Macias Nguema, he made some reforms but retained Nguema’s absolute control over the nation.
Political opposition is barely tolerated and severely hampered by the lack of a free press, as all broadcast media is either owned outright by the government or controlled by its allies.
It is thought that President Obiang, who has previously denied accusations of human rights abuses and election rigging, intends to use his sixth term to clean up his international reputation.
In September, the government abolished the death penalty, in a move which was praised by the United Nations.
Equatorial Guinea has a history of what critics call fraudulent election results.
In 1968, Spanish Guinea gained independence and became the Republic of Equatorial Guinea with Francisco Macias Nguema as president.
Rights groups have labelled the country’s two presidents – Francisco Macias Nguema and Teodoro Obiang Nguema – as some of the worst rights abusers in Africa.
The Spanish, French and Portuguese-speaking country discovered vast oil reserves in 1996, but much of the 1.4 million population has not benefitted from this, with poverty still rampant.
