The United States (US) on Tuesday expressed serious doubts about the credibility of the recently announced election results in Equatorial Guinea and called on authorities to work with all stakeholders to check for allegations of voter fraud, reported The BBC.
According to Equatorial Guinea’s election officials, the 80-year-old Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo secured almost 95% of votes.
“Given the scale of irregularities observed and the announced results giving the [ruling party] PDGE 94.9% of the vote, we have serious doubts about the credibility of the announced results,” said Ned Price, the US State Department spokesperson, in a statement.
Equatorial Guinea has had only two presidents since it got independence from Spain in 1968. President Obiang came to power in 1979 following a military takeover. He was the successor to Francisco Macias Nguema, who had become Equatorial Guinea’s first president upon independence from Spain in 1968. There have been a numerous coup attempts to displace him, but, none have been successful.
Obiang had the support of a coalition of 15 parties, including his party, the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE), in the recently held election. Back in 2011, he lifted Equatorial Guinea’s constitutional age limit of 75 for serving as the president.
In the statement, the US State Department spokesperson Price said allegations of significant election-related irregularities included repeat voting, intimidation, and coercion, adding that the Washington is also concerned by what he said were irregular counting practices.
It is interesting to note that Obiang has never officially been re-elected with less than 93 percent of the vote. He secured 99% of the vote in 1989, when the country was still a one-party state. He got 97.8% in 1996, 97.1% in 2002, 95.7% in 2009 and 93.7% percent in 2016 election.
In related news, the US President Joseph R. Biden Jr. has invited Obiang Nguema to the US-Africa Leaders’ Summit taking place in Washington D.C. December 13-15.
