GOVERNMENT
The 1982 constitution gives the President extensive powers, including naming and dismissing members of the cabinet, making laws by decree, dissolving the Chamber of Representatives, negotiating and ratifying treaties and calling legislative elections. The President retains his role as commander in chief of the armed forces and maintains close supervision of military activity. In June 2004, the President reorganized the cabinet and created two new positions: Minister of National Security and Director of National Forces. The Prime Minister is appointed by the President and operates under powers designated by the President. The Prime Minister coordinates government activities.
The Chamber of Representatives is comprised of 100 members elected by direct suffrage for 5-year terms. In practice, the Chamber has not demonstrated independence, and it rarely acts without presidential approval or direction. A new national assembly was directly elected in April 2004. Of the 100 members of this body, 14 are from the loyal opposition and 2 from an opposition party (the CPDS--Convergencia Para la Democracia Social). The next legislative election is scheduled for May 4, 2008.
The President appoints the governors of the seven provinces. Each province is divided administratively into districts and municipalities. The internal administrative system falls under the Ministry of Interior and Territorial Administration; several other ministries are represented at the provincial and district levels.
The judicial system follows similar administrative levels. At the top are the President and his judicial advisors (the Supreme Court). In descending rank are the appeals courts, chief judges for the divisions, and local magistrates. Tribal laws and customs are honored in the formal court system when not in conflict with national law. The current court system, which often uses customary law, is a combination of traditional, civil, and military justice, and it operates in an ad hoc manner for lack of established procedures and experienced judicial personnel.
The other official branch of the government is the State Council. The State Council's main function is to serve as caretaker in case of death or physical incapacity of the President. It comprises the following ex officio members: the President of the Republic, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, the President of the national assembly and the Chairman of the Social and Economic Council.
Although the abuses and atrocities that characterized the Macias years have been eliminated, the government continues to be dominated by the presidency. Religious freedom is tolerated.
Principal
Government Officials
President--Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Brig. Gen. (ret.)
Prime Minister--Ricardo Mangue
Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation--Pastor Micha Ondo Bile
Ambassador to the United States--Purification Angue Ondo
Equatorial
Guinea maintains an embassy in Washington, D.C. at 1712 I Street
NW, Suite 410, Washington, DC 20005 (Tel. (202) 393-0525, Fax.
(202) 393-0348). Its mission to the United Nations is at 801 Second
Avenue, Suite 1403, New York, N.W. 10017 (Tel. 212-599-1523).
POLITICAL
CONDITIONS
In the period following Spain's grant of local autonomy to Equatorial Guinea in 1963, there was a great deal of political party activity. Bubi and Fernandino parties on the island preferred separation from Rio Muni or a loose federation. Ethnically based parties in Rio Muni favored independence for a united country comprising Bioko and Rio Muni, an approach that ultimately won out. (The Movimiento para la Auto-determinacion de la Isla de Bioko (MAIB), which advocates independence for the island under Bubi control, is one of the offshoots of the era immediately preceding independence). After the accession of Macias to power, political activity largely ceased in Equatorial Guinea. Opposition figures who lived among the exile communities in Spain and elsewhere agitated for reforms; some of them had been employed in the Macias and Obiang governments. After political activities in Equatorial Guinea were legalized in the early 1990s, some opposition leaders returned, but repressive actions continued sporadically.
The country's first freely contested municipal elections were held in September 1995. Most observers agree that the elections themselves were relatively free and transparent and that the opposition parties garnered between two-thirds and three-quarters of the total vote. The government, however, delayed announcement of the results and then claimed a highly dubious 52% victory overall and the capture of 19 of 27 municipal councils. In early January 1996 Obiang called for presidential elections. International observers agreed that the campaign was marred by fraud, and most of the opposition candidates withdrew in the final week. Obiang claimed re-election with 98% of the vote. In an attempt to mollify his critics, Obiang gave minor portfolios in his cabinet to people identified as opposition figures. In the legislative election in March 1999, the party increased its majority in the 80-seat parliament from 68 to 75. The main opposition parties refused the seats they had allegedly won. In May 2000, the ruling PDGE overwhelmed its rivals in local elections. Opposition parties rejected the next election, the December 2002 Presidential election, as invalid. During this election, President Obiang was re-elected with 97% of the vote. Following his re-election Obiang formed a government based on national unity encompassing all opposition parties, except for the CPDS, which declined to join after Obiang refused to release one of their jailed leaders.
In April 2004, parliamentary and municipal elections took place. President Obiang's Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) and allied parties won 98 of 100 seats in parliament and all but seven of 244 municipal posts. International observers criticized both the election and its results.
While President Obiang's rule, in which schools reopened, primary education expanded, and public utilities and roads restored, compares favorably with Macias' tyranny and terror, it has been criticized for not implementing genuine democratic reforms. Corruption and a dysfunctional judicial system disrupt the development of Equatorial Guinea's economy and society. In 2004, the President appointed a new Prime Minister, Miguel Abia Biteo, and replaced several ministers; however, the government budget still did not include all revenues and expenditures. The United Nations Development Program proposed a broad governance reform program, but the Equatoguinean Government was not moving rapidly to implement it. In August 2006 a new Prime Minister, Ricardo Mangue, was named and the pace of reform accelerated.
In May 2002 a special tribunal convicted 68 prisoners and their relatives and sentenced them to 6 to 20 years in prison for an alleged attempted coup d'etat. Among the prisoners were leaders of the three main opposition parties that had remained independent from President Obiang's ruling party. There were numerous irregularities associated with the trial, including evidence of torture and a lack of substantive proof. In August 2003, 31 of these convicted prisoners were granted a presidential amnesty.
In March 2004, Zimbabwean police in Harare impounded a plane from South Africa with 64 alleged mercenaries on board. The group said they were providing security for a mine in Democratic Republic of the Congo, but a couple of days later an Equatorial Guinean minister said they had detained 15 more men who he claimed were the advance party for the group captured in Zimbabwe. Nick du Toit, the leader of the group of South Africans, Armenians, and one German in Equatorial Guinea, said at his trial in Equatorial Guinea that he was playing a limited role in a coup bid organized by Simon Mann, the alleged leader of the group held in Zimbabwe, to remove Obiang from power and install an exiled opposition politician, Severo Moto.
In September 2004, Mann was sentenced to seven years in jail in Zimbabwe after being convicted of illegally trying to buy weapons. In subsequent legal proceedings, three Equatoguineans and three South Africans were acquitted. In June 2005, President Obiang granted amnesty to the six Armenian pilots. In Harare, Mann obtained a reduced sentence based on good behavior in late 2007, at which point Zimbabwe consented to Equatorial Guinea's extradition request and flew Mann to Malabo in early 2008. Awaiting trial, Mann has been allowed visits by western media and family members, and has reportedly confessed to the attempted coup, implicating Severo Moto, Sir Mark Thatcher, and Ely Calil, a nationalized British citizen of Lebanese ancestry with connections to Nigeria.
Although Equatorial Guinea lacks a well-established democratic tradition, it has broken with the anarchic, chaotic, brutal, and repressive pattern of the Macias years and is improving its human rights and political performance. In addition, the country is undertaking an ambitious, multi-billion dollar development program that is improving the quality of life and providing opportunities for employment for its citizens.
Type: Nominally multi-party Republic with strong domination by the executive branch.
Independence: October 12, 1968 (from Spain).
Constitution: Approved by national referendum November 17, 1991; amended January 1995.
Branches: Executive--President (Chief of State), Prime Minister, and a Council of Ministers appointed by the president. Legislative--100-member Chamber of People's Representatives (members directly elected by universal suffrage to serve five-year terms); next parliamentary/municipal elections are set for May 4, 2008. Judicial--Supreme Tribunal.
Administrative subdivisions: Seven provinces--Annobon, Bioko Norte, Bioko Sur, Centro Sur, Kie-Ntem, Littoral, Wele-Nzas.
Political parties: The ruling party is the Partido Democratico de Guinea Ecuatorial (PDGE), formed July 30, 1987. There are 12 other recognized parties that formed in the early 1990s.
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal adult.
