Presidential elections were held in

Equatorial Guinea Equatorial Guinea ( es, Guinea Ecuatorial; french: Guinée équatoriale; pt, Guiné Equatorial), officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea ( es, link=no, República de Guinea Ecuatorial, french: link=no, République de Guinée équatoria ...

on 24 April 2016. In a vote initially scheduled for November but brought forward by seven months, incumbent President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo retained his office with 93.7 percent of the vote.

Electoral system

The

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

is elected using the

first-past-the-post In a first-past-the-post electoral system (FPTP or FPP), formally called single-member plurality voting (SMP) when used in single-member districts or informally choose-one voting in contrast to ranked voting, or score voting, voters cast their ...

system. After the 2011 constitutional referendum, presidents were limited to two terms of seven years and the age limit for candidates was removed. In addition, the post of

Vice President A vice president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vice president is on t ...

was established, allowing the vice president to automatically assume power if the president died in office.

Candidates

The leading candidate was incumbent president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, running for his first term after the 2011 constitutional referendum and sixth overall. He ran as the candidate of the

Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea The Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea ( es, Partido Democrático de Guinea Ecuatorial, abbreviated PDGE) is the ruling political party in Equatorial Guinea. It was established by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo on 11 October 1987. ...

, a coalition of ten parties, and was expected to win. At the time of the election, Obiang was the longest serving African president, having been in power since 1979. He was widely expected to win the vote. The opposition were all mainly new faces with little political recognition and none of their parties were represented in

Parliament In modern politics, and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...

. There were also three independent candidates, which critics claimed were dummy candidates to provide legitimacy for the elections. The Democratic Opposition Front, which is a coalition of dissident parties, boycotted the election, citing that the election would be "anti-constitutional" and that Obiang would win "with a big score as a result of fraud". Opposition candidate, Gabriel Nse Obiang Obono, was prevented from running for not meeting residency requirements.

Conduct

Three days after the election date was announced,

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...

said that the Center for the Study and Initiatives for Development had been ordered to shut down. According to EG Justice, a member of opposition party Centre-Right Union was detained and beaten by authorities during the campaign. Reporters from

Africa24 Africa 24 is a 24-hours-a-day, 7-days-a-week television news network devoted to news about Africa. It broadcasts in French to France, but is also available in Sub-Saharan Africa. In January 2013, Arab Satellite Communications Organization (Arabs ...

were also detained for five hours on entry into the country before being released. The

African Union The African Union (AU) is a continental union consisting of 55 member states located on the continent of Africa. The AU was announced in the Sirte Declaration in Sirte, Libya, on 9 September 1999, calling for the establishment of the Africa ...

sent an observer mission, led by former Beninese President

Thomas Boni Yayi Thomas Boni Yayi (born 1 July 1951) is a Beninese banker and politician who was President of Benin from 2006 to 2016. He took office after winning the March 2006 presidential election and was re-elected to a second term in March 2011. He also s ...

, on 13 April to oversee the conduct of the election.

Results

The government announced on 28 April 2016 that Obiang had won the election by an overwhelming margin, as expected. Provisional results showed him with 93.7% of the vote on a turnout of 92.9%. He was sworn in for another term at a ceremony in Malabo on 20 May 2016."Obiang sworn in as Equatorial Guinea's president"
Xinhua, 21 May 2016.

References

{{Equatorial Guinean elections

2016 in Equatorial Guinea Presidential elections in Equatorial Guinea April 2016 events in Africa