The ruling party in Equatorial Guinea, led by President Teodoro Obiang Mbasaugo, announced - on Friday - that the president will run again for a sixth term in the elections to be held on November 20, noting that Obiang Mbasaugo is the longest serving current president in the world.
Obiang Mbasaugo, 80, came to power in 1979, after the coup against his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema, who had ruled Equatorial Guinea since its independence from Spain in 1968.
"Because of his popularity, leadership style and political experience, the Executive Committee of the Democratic Party unanimously decided to nominate the struggling brother Obiang Mbasaugo for the presidential elections scheduled for November 20," Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mange, the son and vice president of the president, said on his Twitter account in Spanish on Friday.
Por su carisma, liderazgo y experiencia politica, la Junta Ejecutiva del PDGE ha elegido por unanimidad al Hermano Militante Teodoro Obiang NGUEMA MBASOGO como el candidato que representará al partido en las presidenciales del novióxiremo 20
— teddy nguema (@teonguema) September 23, 2022
Obiang leads the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea, which has 99 seats out of 100 in the outgoing House of Representatives, and all 70 seats in the Senate.
The president of Equatorial Guinea has been holding the Guinness World Record for the longest serving president in the world since April 24, 2016. The encyclopedia adds on its website that Obiang Mbasaugo rules the country with absolute authority through elections that the opposition says are controlled.
Rights organizations say that Obiang's rule was characterized by torture of political opponents, sham elections and corruption, which the president of Equatorial Guinea, a central African country that is a member of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), denies. Oil and gas revenues make up three quarters of its treasury revenues.