Equatorial Guinea

Under the 1982 constitution, Equatorial Guinea was a single-party state. This governmental party was named the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea in 1987. A new multiparty constitution was approved by public referendum in 1991. It established an 80-member House of Representatives to replace the existing 41-member legislature. Under the constitution, the voters elect a president to a seven-year term and legislators to five-year terms.

The island of Fernando Póo was sighted in 1471 by Fernão do Po, a Portuguese navigator. Portugal ceded the island to Spain in 1778. From 1827 to 1844, with the permission of the Spanish government, Britain maintained a naval station at Fernando Póo and also administered the island. In 1844 the Spanish settled in the area that became the province of Río Muni. In 1904 Fernando Póo and Río Muni were organized into the Western African Territories, later known as Spanish Guinea.

On October 12, 1968, the territory became the independent Republic of Equatorial Guinea, with Francisco Macías Nguema as president. In 1972 Macías Nguema appointed himself president for life. Extreme dictatorial and repressive policies led to the flight of an estimated 100,000 refugees to neighboring countries; at least 50,000 of those who remained were killed, and another 40,000 were sent into forced labor. In 1979 Macías Nguema was overthrown in a military coup, tried for treason, and executed. Lieutenant Colonel Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, who led the coup, then became president.

Parliamentary elections, based on a single slate of candidates, were held in 1983 and 1988. In November 1993 the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea won the country’s first multiparty elections, which were boycotted by at least half of the eligible voters. Opposition forces called for the boycott after the Obiang Nguema government refused to prepare an accurate electoral roll and guarantee the right to campaign without harassment. In February 1996 presidential elections Obiang Nguema, opposed by only one candidate, reportedly received more than 99 percent of the vote. International organizations condemned the elections because of the government’s harassment, jailing, and alleged torture of political opponents. March 1999 legislative elections, dominated by the ruling party, were also condemned as fraudulent. Obiang Nguema was reelected in December 2002, running unopposed after all opposition candidates dropped out in protest of electoral irregularities. In June 2004 Miguel Abia Biteo Borico became the country’s new prime minister.

In 2004 the president alleged there had been a coup attempt on him and a trial was held of those suspected of the act. The coup’s South African leader, Nick du Toit, was jailed for 34 years in November for his role, while the political opposition leader Severo Moto, in self-exile in Spain, received a 63-year sentence. Also seemingly involved in the coup attempt was Sir Mark Thatcher, son of the former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher. He received a suspended sentence, despite denying knowledge of the plot. The government resigned in August 2006; Prime Minister Biteo was replaced by Ricardo Mangue Obama Nfubea.