GUINEAMARRESTS RIGHTS ACTIVIST
Nov 30th, 2009 by admin
The president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, looks set to win yesterday’s national elections with 96.7 per cent of votes, according to partial results posted on the government’s web site today. Nguema has ruled sub-Saharan Africa’s fourth-largest oil-producing country for the last three decades. Human rights groups claim the vote was unlikely to have been free and fair. Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders condemned the state-owned media for allegedly one-sided coverage of the election campaign. There is no independent media in the country. Nguema has been linked to several money laundering scandals but denies all charges. Despite plentiful oil production in Equatorial Guinea, the United Nations estimates 60 per cent of its population lives on less than one US dollar a day.
