Equatorial Guinea
New Prime Minister appointed in Equatorial Guinea

afrol.com, 26 February - Cándido Muatetema Rivas today obtained the post as Equatorial Guinean Prime Minister after the resignation of country's cabinet on Friday. Rivas, who was Minister of Youth and Sports between 1992 and 1996, also holds the post as the Secretary-General of majorty party Partido Democrático de Guinea Ecuatorial (PDGE).

President Teodoro Obiang Ngeuma today also filled the vacancy of the Vice-Prime Minister post, appointing Ignacio Milam Tang to the post. Tang is also a former Minister of Youth and Sports and former Second Vice-President of the Equatorial Guinean Parliament.

Muatetema Rivas thus becomes the country's third Prime Minister appointed by President Obiang after the transition process towards multi-party democracy was introduced in 1991, after Sivestre Siale Bileka (1992-1996) and Ángel Serafín Seriche Dougan (1996-2001). The transicion process has however come to a halt.

The appointment of the new Prime Minister and Vice-Prime Minister today comes only three days after President Obiang, in a presidential decree, announced the resignation of Ángel Serafín Seriche Dougan and the rest of the Equatorial Guinean cabinet ministers. The cabinet was forces to resign after five months of heavy attcks from its fellow party members, the parliamentary majority, the President and his son (and propable successor) for alleged corruption scandals.

On resigning, Seriche Dougan referred to the "institutional crisis" that had followed these attacks from the parliamentary majority. President Obiang immediately accepted the government's resignation. 

On Saturday, the Presidential Office also announced the renewal of all national and local authorities. An anonymous source from the PDGE party (which has the President's support) indicated that this renovation "marks the start of a strengthening of the structure of the PDGE before the possible organisation of anticipated elections". Oppositional sources fear that the renewal could mean purges within the party to insure the support of the President's son.

Source: Based on EFE, AFP, La Diáspora and afrol archives

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