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Equatorial Guinea: the ruling party surprises by not nominating its candidate for 2023

2021-11-25T01:22:37.262Z


The ruling party in Equatorial Guinea created a surprise by not choosing its 2023 presidential candidate during its Congress, a ...


The ruling party in Equatorial Guinea created a surprise by not choosing its 2023 presidential candidate during its Congress, a first in this country led for 42 years with an iron fist by its president Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo.

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The Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE), a single party until 1991, when the government tolerated small satellite or “opposition” movements, held its 7th Congress from Monday to Wednesday in Bata, the economic capital. This is usually the occasion for the party to nominate its candidate for a seven-year term at the head of the country. But to everyone's surprise, in an evening that lasted until late into the night, no such announcement was made.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who seized power in a coup d'état in 1979, has been in sharp withdrawal from the political scene for a few months in favor of his son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, nicknamed Teodorin, 53 years old.

The latter has long been presented as his dolphin, vice-president of the Republic and vice-president of the PDGE, omnipresent in public recently.

A few weeks ago, this jet-setter claimed and posted on social networks, with a sulphurous reputation, condemned in France in the context of the

"ill-gotten gains"

affair

, seemed to have to be appointed in his place.

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"The natural outcome of this congress is to maintain the status quo with Teodoro Obiang candidate for a new mandate"

, had predicted to AFP just before the Congress Ana Lucia Sa, professor of political science at the University of Lisbon, specialist from Equatorial Guinea.

"But there are more and more tensions within the ruling elite to prepare for the post-Teodoro"

, she had analyzed.

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For the activists who left the Palais des Congrès, the current head of state is still a natural candidate for his succession.

"The fact that the son is not nominated as a candidate by Congress simply says that it is the person who is in place who remains"

, thus assured AFP a cacique of the regime.

"The founding president is the natural candidate of the PDGE in the elections,"

he added.

In Equatorial Guinea, rich in gas and oil, the vast majority of the 1.3 million inhabitants live below the poverty line, according to the World Bank.

Many debates during Congress revolved around the economic crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-11-25

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