The world’s longest-serving president just won a
sixth term with 99% of the vote
Teodoro Obiang
Nguema has never received less than 97 percent of the vote in an
election. On Monday, with partial results indicating
that 99.2 percent of the vote has gone in his favor,
Equatorial Guinea's leader was surely all set for another seven years in a
seat that has no doubt molded to his figure.
One-sixth of
African countries have an executive who has been in power for more than 20
years — that's nine out of 54. Obiang, who took power nearly 37 years ago in a
bloody coup, is in the company of Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe (who turned 92
in February), Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea and King Mswati III of Swaziland.
But Obiang is most similar to — and most closely followed in terms of the number
of years in office by — José Eduardo dos Santos of Angola.
Dos Santos and
Obiang preside over Africa's No. 2 and 3 crude-oil producers,
respectively, and are accused of embezzling much of the resulting wealth,
while not distributing it fairly, if at all, to their citizens. Equatorial
Guinea, once a Spanish colony, has the biggest gap of any country worldwide
between its per-capita wealth and its human development index — a sure sign
that there are a few outliers skewing the per-capita figure way upward.
Obiang triumphed
over six other candidates, winning all but 326 of the 40,926 votes counted, according to
a government-run website.
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“I am the
candidate of the people. Whoever does not vote for me is rejecting peace and
opting for disorder,” Obiang said at a rally in the capital, Malabo, according
to Bloomberg News. “Many say that they are tired of seeing me, it’s been
36 years already. True, but I’ve dedicated my life to this country,” he said.
Obiang is accused
of diverting tax money into his personal accounts, and internal reports
from the U.S. Justice Department accessed by the New York Times allege that
"most if not all" of his wealth was gained through corruption
relating to his country's oil and gas industry. Perhaps not so
incidentally, big American gas companies such as ExxonMobil, Hess and
Marathon are the biggest buyers of Equatoguinean gas, and Obiang travels
unimpeded to the United States on a regular basis.
In 2011, U.S.
authorities successfully filed papers against his son -- who is also his vice
president -- to seize a $30 million home of his in Malibu, Calif., a
Gulfstream jet, a Ferrari, and dozens of pieces of Michael Jackson memorabilia
worth more than $2 million, all bought with funds funneled through offshore
bank accounts.