MALABO, Equatorial Guinea, April 24 (APP/AFP): Africa’s longest-serving leader, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema, is set for re-election as the tiny nation of Equatorial Guinea goes to the polls Sunday.
Initially scheduled to be held in November, the vote was brought forward to April 24 following a presidential decree, with no reason offered for the change.
Obiang, who has ruled the west African country with an iron fist for more than 36 years, faces six candidates in Sunday’s vote.
The main opposition parties have however boycotted a vote that the doyen of African leaders looks certain to win.
In the last election in 2009, Obiang was returned to office with a sweeping 95.37 percent of votes.
Now aged 73, he came to power in a coup in 1979 that overthrew his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema, who had ruled the country since independence from Spain in 1968.
Obiang’s regime has frequently come under fire by human rights groups for suppressing dissident voices, civil society and the media, as well as for widespread corruption.