The president controls the executive branch, including the council of ministers. Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, Africa’s longest-serving head of state, has held the presidency since 1979. He was awarded a new seven-year term in the November 2022 presidential election, ostensibly winning 97 percent of the vote in an unfair contest against two nominal challengers from approved opposition parties.

The bicameral parliament consists of a 70-seat Senate and a 100-seat Chamber of Deputies. Fifteen senators are appointed by the president, 55 are directly elected, and there can be several additional ex officio members. The Chamber of Deputies is directly elected, and all elected lawmakers serve five-year terms.

In the November 2022 legislative elections, the ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) and its allies won all 100 seats in the lower house, all 55 of the elected seats in the Senate, and all 588 municipal council positions. The two opposition parties that were permitted to participate received a tiny fraction of the vote, according to official results, and the campaign environment was tightly controlled by the authorities.

Equatorial Guinea does not have an independent electoral body; the head of the National Electoral Commission during the 2022 elections was also the country’s interior minister and a member of the ruling PDGE. Elections are not fairly managed in practice.

The PDGE is the dominant party, operating in conjunction with several subordinate parties in its coalition. The only other parties allowed to participate in the 2022 elections were the Convergence for Social Democracy (CPDS) and the Party of the Social Democratic Coalition (PCSD).

Opposition leaders and members are subject to arrest, abuse in detention, and heavy prison sentences after unfair trials. In September 2022, police attacked the headquarters of CI, an opposition party that was banned in 2018, and arrested as many as 275 people, including party leader Gabriel Nsé Obiang. One officer and at least four civilians were reportedly killed in the assault, and many others were injured.

Equatorial Guinea has never experienced a peaceful transfer of power through elections. President Obiang took power after a coup in 1979, and in 2016 he appointed his son as vice president, paving the way for his succession.

The November 2022 elections featured extensive irregularities and no genuine competition. Opposition candidates lost every contest at the presidential, legislative, and municipal levels.

The regime routinely uses the security forces to attack and intimidate opposition supporters, and political loyalty to the ruling party is treated as a condition for obtaining and keeping public-sector employment.

The ethnic Fang majority dominates political life, leaving minority ethnic groups with little influence; power is concentrated in the hands of the president’s family and allies from their region of origin. Women formally enjoy equal political rights, but the repressive political system does not allow them to organize independently to advance their interests. Women hold few government positions, 31 percent of the seats in the Chamber of Deputies, and 22 percent of the seats in the Senate. While no law explicitly prevents LGBT+ individuals from exercising their political rights, societal discrimination discourages them from participating openly and advocating for their welfare.

The executive branch—headed by the president, who is not freely elected—sets and implements government policy, leaving the legislature no meaningful role in the policymaking process.

There are no independent anticorruption mechanisms, and the government is marred by nepotism and graft. Hiring and promotions within the government, army, and civil service favor those with ties to the president and his family. Two of the president’s sons, the vice president and the minister of mines and hydrocarbons, have been the subjects of corruption cases in European courts. Although the government has taken some steps to address corruption, the efforts have been largely superficial.

In March 2022, the president appointed the first members of the Court of Auditors, a monitoring body called for in a 2012 constitutional amendment. Former treasury minister Melchor Esono Edjo, a nephew of the president, was sworn in as head of the court despite past international corruption allegations and a conflict of interest related to his shares in a partially state-owned bank. In May, the president also appointed the leaders of a new anticorruption commission in keeping with a 2020 law. The effectiveness of these institutions and the differentiation of their functions remained unclear at year’s end.

The government’s budget process and procurement system are opaque, as are the finances of state-owned companies. A significant percentage of revenue from the country’s oil reserves is funneled to Obiang’s allies through noncompetitive, nontransparent construction contracts. International financial organizations and human rights groups have criticized the government for pouring resources into wasteful infrastructure projects while neglecting public health and social spending.

In compliance with a 2021 anticorruption law, the government released a form for asset declarations in March 2022. Members of the government issued their respective declarations later that year, but the statements were apparently removed from the government website a few weeks later.

Press freedom is severely limited, despite constitutional protections. Most journalists consistently exercise self-censorship, and those who do criticize the regime are subject to dismissal and other reprisals. The country’s only private television and radio broadcaster, RTV-Asonga, is controlled by Teodorín. The handful of private newspapers and magazines in operation face intense financial and political pressure and are unable to publish regularly. The government has long sought to block access to the websites of opposition parties and exile groups, and online versions of some Spanish newspapers are regularly blocked. The government has obstructed access to the internet in times of political tension.

Religious freedom is protected by the constitution, though in practice it is sometimes affected by the country’s broader political repression and endemic corruption. The Roman Catholic Church is the dominant faith and is exempt from registration and permit requirements that apply to other groups. Government officials are regularly required to attend Catholic masses.

In 2020, the government disbanded two religious groups on the grounds that they did not comply with COVID-19-related restrictions. The decree took effect without due process and included deportation orders for foreign pastors associated with the groups.

In August 2022, pastor Rubén Mayé Nsue Mangue, a former minister of justice and ambassador to the United States, was arrested and banned from practicing his religion after he allegedly criticized the government in sermons and on social media. He was forcibly disappeared for days after his arrest and remained in detention at year’s end.

Academic freedom is politically constrained, and self-censorship among faculty is common. Some university professors and teachers have reportedly been hired or dismissed due to their political affiliations.

Freedoms of personal expression and private discussion are restricted. The government uses informants and electronic surveillance to monitor dissent, and critics of the government are subject to arbitrary arrest, physical abuse, and trumped-up criminal charges.

In September 2022, ahead of the general elections in November, several alleged opponents of the government were arrested based in part on their social media activity and private communications. At least three detainees were accused of plotting a terrorist action and shown confessing on state television.

Freedom of assembly is severely restricted. Opposition gatherings are typically blocked or dispersed by security forces, and citizens are sometimes pressured to attend progovernment events.

In June 2022, a rally organized by the CPDS was banned by the authorities. In September, Leoncio Prisco Eko Mba, a rapper also known as Adjoguening who had criticized the government in his lyrics, was arrested while staging a protest to demand that officials restore his confiscated passport. He was held for a month without charges.

All associations must register with the government through an onerous process, and independent nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) face state persecution. In 2019, the Center for Studies and Initiatives for the Development of Equatorial Guinea (CEID-GE) was dissolved by government decree.

Among those arrested in the broader preelection crackdown in September 2022 were human rights activists Luis Nzó Ondo and Anacleto Micha Nlang. Another civil society activist, Joaquin Elo Ayeto, was arrested in December.

The constitution provides for the right to organize unions, but there are many legal and practical barriers to union formation, collective bargaining, and strikes. The government has refused to register several trade unions; a farmers’ organization is the only legal union.

The judiciary is not independent, and judges in sensitive cases often consult with the office of the president before issuing important rulings. Under the constitution, the president is the nation’s first magistrate. He also oversees the body that nominates judges. The court system’s impartiality is further undermined by corruption. Judges are regularly accused of taking bribes.

In July 2022, the president of the Supreme Court resigned in the face of allegations that he had received a bribe from a private company. Teodorín stated on social media that the judge had admitted to the crime. A new Supreme Court president was appointed by decree later that month.

Security forces routinely detain people without charge, and defendants’ due process rights are not respected. Military courts, which are empowered to try civilians for certain crimes, have even fewer due process protections than civilian courts and lack an avenue for appeal.

Beatings, torture, and forced disappearances by security forces are reportedly common. Prisons are overcrowded and feature harsh conditions, including physical abuse, poor sanitation, and denial of medical care.

In May 2022, Teodorín launched a law enforcement campaign to suppress violence by criminal gangs. Authorities detained thousands of people over the course of several months, and at least four died in custody.

A revised penal code that was enacted in September eliminated the death penalty, though capital punishment is still allowed under the code of military justice. The most recent execution was carried out in 2014.

There are few legal protections against discrimination. Women face discrimination in employment and other matters, particularly in rural areas. Ethnic minority groups such as the Bubi, Ndowe, and Annobonese suffer persistent societal discrimination in the form of harassment from law enforcement officials or difficulties accessing public services.

Immigrants, including irregular migrants, are subject to raids, physical abuse, and extortion by police. Same-sex sexual activity is not illegal, but LGBT+ people face social stigma and mistreatment including street harassment and discrimination in the workplace.

Freedom of movement is protected by law but restricted in practice through measures such as police checkpoints, which often require the payment of bribes. Authorities have denied opposition members and other dissidents’ return from abroad, confiscated their passports, or restricted their movements within the country.

Pervasive corruption and onerous bureaucratic procedures serve as major impediments to private business activity. Property rights are inconsistently respected by the government. Members of the Bubi minority have reported cases of land grabs by elites and the government in recent years.

Most women face disadvantages regarding inheritance and property rights under both the civil code and customary practices, though women enjoy greater customary rights among the Bubi.

The civil code and customary law put women at a disadvantage with respect to personal status matters like marriage and child custody, with some exceptions among the Bubi. Laws against rape and domestic violence are not enforced effectively. The government does little to collect data or to support civil society efforts to combat such problems, which include sexual violence against minors and LGBT+ people. Child marriage is common; the minimum age for marriage is 14. The Education Ministry bars pregnant girls from attending school.

The country’s oil wealth is concentrated among the ruling elite, leaving much of the population without access to basic services. Equatorial Guinea continues to score poorly on social and economic development indicators, and economic conditions have worsened when global oil prices are low.

Some foreign workers are subject to passport confiscation and forced labor. Corrupt officials are often complicit in human trafficking, according to the US State Department. In late 2021, security forces arrested hundreds of foreign nationals—particularly those from other African countries—regardless of their documentation or legal status. Some were expelled from the country without the required court procedure.