The U.S. government on Thursday called on Equatorial Guinea to guarantee a «free and fair» vote for the presidential and legislative elections to be held on November 20 in the African country.
«On the opening day of the electoral campaign in Equatorial Guinea, the U.S. Government calls on the Equatoguinean Executive to fulfill its international commitments and constitutional principles by supporting a free and fair vote,» said U.S. State Department spokesman Ned Price.
He stressed that Washington «is concerned about reports of arrests and harassment of members of the opposition and civil society». «We call on the government to allow its citizens to freely and confidently express their preference at the polls,» he stressed.
«Equatorial Guinea can cultivate a more inclusive, peaceful, and democratic society by ensuring the expression of diverse political perspectives, a free and fair voting process, and the protection of the human rights of all individuals,» Price reiterated.
Equatorial Guinea’s Parliament approved in September to move the presidential elections to November instead of the first quarter of 2023, when they were scheduled, to coincide with legislative and municipal elections.
The Equatoguinean president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, will seek a new mandate at the head of the country, which he leads after leading a coup d’état in 1979 that resulted in the overthrow of his uncle Francisco Macías Nguema.
Equatorial Guinea has 18 legalized political parties, although in practice there is no opposition with real options to offer an alternative to Obiang, whose political future was in doubt due to speculations that pointed to an imminent cession of power to his son ‘Teodorín’.
