Equatorial Guinea’s veteran ruler Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has taken the lead in the west African country’s presidential race, according to provisional results released by the interior ministry on Monday.

Obiang is all-but-certain of winning a record sixth term in a country with next to no opposition.

The 80-year-old leader has been in power for more than 43 years – the longest of any head of state alive today, excluding monarchs.

Over 400,000 people were registered to vote in the country of around 1.5 million. Voters also cast ballots to elect 100 members of parliament for the lower house, 55 of the country’s 70 senators, and local mayors.

Observers expect no surprises.

“What you sow is what you reap,” said Obiang, who has regularly won more than 90 percent of the vote in elections conducted over the course of five terms since he seized power from his uncle in a coup in 1979.

“I am sure that the victory is for PDGE,” he said, referring to his party.

He is vying for a sixth term against just two opposition candidates – Buenaventura Monsuy Asumu, who is running for the sixth time against Obiang, and Andrés Esono Ondo, who is running for the first time.

“It is a total fraud,” Esono Ondo told Reuters by phone, saying his party would challenge the result in court.

He said some semblance of fair voting was taking place in the island capital Malabo, but his party had evidence that officials elsewhere were casting ballots on voters’ behalf or forcing them to vote for the ruling party.

Devoid of suspense

“The presidential election is completely devoid of suspense,” said Maja Bovcon, a senior Africa analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft.