Opposition cries foul over Equatorial Guinea poll
Equatorial Guinea, where South African mercenaries led by British soldier of fortune, Simon Mann, tried to topple the government, is holding a presidential election. While Mann and company were recently, and surprisingly, released from the tropical hellhole that is Black Beach prison (with the intervention of Jacob Zuma), human rights and opposition groups in the tiny country of 700,000 people say the vote is unlikely to be free and fair, which means President Teodoro Obiang Nguema will be re-elected. In the country’s last poll, he won 97% of the vote, about the same margin as Saddam Hussein once garnered in rigged elections. The country’s government is ranked as one of the most corrupt on the planet. Earnings from its plentiful oil and gas should give its population an income that rivals that of the developed world. Instead, most people live in dire poverty. Read more: BBC, The Times
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