Government and political actors agreed on key points during dialogue sessions.
The political landscape in Equatorial Guinea will soon witness a veritable hustle and bustle as the government and political actors have reached an agreement on key issues that favour the creation of new political parties and their participation in national life, reports say.
Government’s spokesman Antonio Pascual Oko Ebobo during political dialogue session announced a number of concessions the government had made to meet the demands of political actors. He announced the amendment of Article 14 of the law relating to political parties that reduces the number of co-founders of a political party from three to two and the suppression of the caution of FCFA 30 million hitherto demanded from political parties.
He said all parties that meet the requirements will be legalized. Government has also decided to reduce the period for the legalization of a political party to 30 days, thereby rendering needless the prior authorization for political parties to operate pending their legalization.
Before government made the concessions, many political party leaders and personalities had made their observations and proposals on ways of amending the law. Alfonso Nsue Mokuy of the Democratic Liberal Convention (CLD) stressed the necessity to modify Article 12 that prohibits affiliation in many political parties. Tomas Mecheba of Fernandez of the Socialist Party of Equatorial Guinea (PSGE) proposed that parties with the same initials should not be admitted in order to avoid confusion.
The representative of the Popular Union (UP) proposed that the number of political parties be trimmed down to reflect the population of the country but Buenaventura Mosuy Asumu of the Social Democratic Coalition Party (PCSD) considers the proposal anti-democratic and instead requested the improvement of the conditions of the parties so as to facilitate their participation in national life. Groups of activists, independent and on legalized political parties also participated in the dialogue.
