The countryís first freely contested municipal elections were held in September 1995. Most observers agree that the elections themselves were relatively free and transparent and that the opposition parties garnered between two-thirds and three-quarters of the total vote. The government, however, delayed announcement of the results and then claimed a highly dubious 52% victory overall and the capture of 19 of 27 municipal councils. In early January 1996 Obiang called for presidential elections. International observers agreed that the campaign was marred by fraud, and most of the opposition candidates withdrew in the final week. Obiang claimed re-election with 98% of the vote. In an attempt to mollify his critics, Obiang gave minor portfolios in his cabinet to people identified as opposition figures. In the legislative election in March 1999, the party increased its majority in the 80-seat parliament from 68 to 75. The main opposition parties refused the seats they had allegedly won. In May 2000, the ruling PDGE overwhelmed its rivals in local elections. Opposition parties rejected the next election, the December 2002 Presidential election, as invalid. During this election, President Obiang was re-elected with 97% of the vote. Following his re-election Obiang formed a government based on national unity encompassing all opposition parties, except for the CPDS, which declined to join after Obiang refused to release one of their jailed leaders.

In April 2004, parliamentary and municipal elections took place. President Obiang's Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea (PDGE) and allied parties won 98 of 100 seats in parliament and all but seven of 244 municipal posts. International observers criticized both the election and its results.

While President Obiang's rule, in which schools reopened, primary education expanded, and public utilities and roads restored, compares favorably with Macias' tyranny and terror, it has been criticized for not implementing genuine democratic reforms. Corruption and a dysfunctional judicial system disrupt the development of Equatorial Guinea's economy and society. In 2004, the President appointed a new Prime Minister, Miguel Abia Biteo, and replaced several ministers; however, the government budget still does not include all revenues and expenditures. The United Nations Development Program has proposed a broad governance reform program, but the Equatoguinean Government is not moving rapidly to implement it.

Equatorial Guinea suffered a severe human rights setback in May 2002 when a special tribunal convicted 68 prisoners and their relatives and sentenced them 6 to 20 years in prison for an alleged attempted coup díetat. Among the prisoners were leaders of the three main opposition parties that had remained independent from President Obiang's ruling party. There were numerous irregularities associated with the trial, including evidence of torture and a lack of substantive proof. In August 2003, 31 of these convicted prisoners were granted a presidential amnesty.

In March 2004, Zimbabwean police in Harare impounded a plane from South Africa with 64 alleged mercenaries on board. The group said they were providing security for a mine in Democratic Republic of Congo, but a couple of days later an Equatorial Guinean minister said they had detained 15 more men who he claimed were the advance party for the group captured in Zimbabwe. Nick du Toit, the leader of the group of South Africans, Armenians and one German, in Equatorial Guinea, said at his trial in Equatorial Guinea that he was playing a limited role in a coup bid organized by Simon Mann, the alleged leader of the group held in Zimbabwe, to remove Obiang from power and install an exiled opposition politician, Severo Moto.

In September 2004, Mann was sentenced to seven years in jail in Zimbabwe after being convicted of illegally trying to buy weapons. Others arrested with him were acquitted of any links to a suspected coup attempt after magistrates said prosecutors had failed to prove their case but were convicted on immigration charges to one year in jail. Both Mann's trial in Zimbabwe and the Equatorial Guinea trial began amid complaints of abuse and unfair treatment from relatives of those being held. One suspect, a German, died in prison in Equatorial Guinea of malaria (Amnesty International believes that he died as a result of the effects of torture, and has called for an investigation). In Equatorial Guinea in November 2004, a total of 22 people were convicted, including nine tried in absentia . Three Equatoguineans and three South Africans were acquitted. In June 2005, President Obiang decided to grant amnesty to the six Armenian pilots.

Although Equatorial Guinea lacks a well-established democratic tradition comparable to the developed democracies of the West, it should be noted that, out of the anarchic, chaotic, and repressive conditions of the Macias years the country has made small, haphazard steps toward the development of participatory political system.