Equatorial Guinea: Incumbent president takes lead in election

Equatorial Guinea's President has taken the lead in Sunday’s presidential election.

The Interior Minister unveiled the provisional results Monday (Nov 21).

In this race for a sixth seven-year term, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has so far obtained 44.2 % of the votes cast in nearly half of the country's polling stations.

He is Africa's longest-serving president and the world's longest-serving head of state today / except for monarchs.

His contenders Andrés Esono Ondo of the CPDS party and former ally Buenaventura Monsuy Asumu of the PCSD each got 1.34% and 0.35% of the vote.

The final results of the one-round election will be announced on November 26.

Obiang’s ruling Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) holds 99 of the 100 seats in the outgoing National Assembly and all 55 seats in the Senate, which are also up for re-election. Saturday’s polls included municipal elections.

Over 400,000 people registered to vote in the country of about 1.5 million.

Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo aged 80 took the reins of the country in a coup in 1979.