Opposition says polls were flawed

Equatorial Guinea’s main opposition party, Convergencia para la Democracia Social (CPDS), warned this week that the public was dissatisfied with Sunday’s parliamentary polls and could react with violent protests, Spanish radio reported. Placido Mico, the CPDS secretary-general, told the radio on Monday that “people might lose heart and, above all, grow desperate” following the irregularities reported in the elections—the most frequent complaint was that people were not allowed to vote in secret. “I think this shows simply that what he is doing is going backward,” Mico said, referring to irregularities and to statements by President Teodoro Obiang Nguema. Nguema told Spanish radio on Monday there was no doubt that anomalies might have occurred but said: “I think they are only human: nobody is perfect.”