The election will take place on November 20, at the same time as the legislative, senatorial and municipal polls.
Equatoguineans are called in the next two months to the polls to choose their elected officials, including a president.
Planned for the first quarter of 2023, the presidential election will finally be held in November.
The presidential, Chamber of Deputies, Senate and municipal elections are scheduled for November 20, 2022, said a decree of President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo read Tuesday evening on state television.
The need to group together expensive elections in the midst of an economic crisis due to “the war in Ukraine” and the “Covid pandemic” is the reason given by the decree for bringing forward the presidential elections.
But observers see it as the will of one of the two Equatoguinean power sources to push forth what it believes to be its advantage.
At the head of the country for forty-three years, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, 80, holds the world record for longevity in power as the longest serving head of state still alive, besides monarchies.
He came to power in 1979 after overthrowing his uncle Francisco Macias Nguema in a coup.
Mr. Mbasogo could run for another term or support the candidacy of his son Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, nicknamed “Teodorin”.
Teodorin, who is the vice-president in charge of defence and was sentenced in 2021 in France for embezzlement, has long been considered his father’s successor and has been omnipresent on the political scene for the past two years.
Despite his influence in the country’s politics, the congress of the Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) did not endorse him as its presidential candidate in November 2021, to the surprise of many.
The PDGE, which was the only party until 1991, is the overwhelming favourite for the legislative elections in this small hydrocarbon-rich country.
It should leave only a few crumbs to “tolerated” opposition movements, among the few that are not the target of relentless repression regularly denounced by international NGOs.
ODL/cgd/lb/as/APA