Nov 30, 2009, 0:06 GMT
Nairobi/Malabo - Oil-rich Equatorial Guinea voted Sunday in a presidential election critics say is little more than a rubber stamp for seven more years in power for President Teodoro Obiang Nguema.
Obiang, 67, has ruled with an iron fist since seizing power from his uncle in a 1979 coup and observers say he continues to suppress opposition and violate basic human rights.
Polls closed at 1700 GMT after a peaceful day's voting, with just under 300,000 people registered to cast their ballots in the tiny nation.
Initial results are due on Thursday, with final results expected the following Monday, although there is little suspense over who will win.
Obiang has said he intends to win with 97 per cent of the vote, which would be a repeat of his 2002 victory, when he scooped 97.1 per cent of the vote.
His Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) has strolled to victory in all elections since multiparty politics was introduced - at least nominally - in 1991, and holds 99 out of 100 seats in parliament.
Equatorial Guinea's human rights record is poor, and organizations such as Human Rights Watch and Reporters Without Borders said this week that the meager opposition in the country has been harassed and given virtually no coverage in the the state-run media.
Election observers from African Union and Economic Community of Central African States are subject to rules that compromise their efforts to monitor the election, Human Rights Watch said.
Obiang has long faced charges of human rights abuses and of stripping his country of its wealth.
Equatorial Guinea became Africa's third-largest oil producer behind Nigeria and Angola after the discovery of oil and gas deposits in the mid-1990s.
US companies buy up a large percentage of Equatorial Guinea's 250,000 barrels per day and the government is in negotiations with Germany's E.ON AG to develop its gas resources.
Transparency International regularly ranks the nation as one of the most corrupt in the world in its annual corruption index - this year placing it twelfth from the bottom on its 180-nation list.
Obiang and his son Teodorin both faced investigation into their multimillion-dollar foreign assets, in France and the United States respectively, but no charges have been filed.
Your Talkback on this Story