obiang's regime kept clear authoritarian characteristics even after other parties were legalized in 1991. most domestic and international observers consider his regime to be one of the most corrupt, ethnocentric, oppressive and undemocratic states in the world. equatorial guinea is now essentially a single-party state, dominated by obiang's democratic party of equatorial guinea (pdge). in 2008 american journalist peter maass called obiang africa's worst dictator, worse than robert mugabe of zimbabwe. the constitution grants obiang wide powers, including the power to rule by decree. nonetheless, obiang has far less power than macías. for the most part his rule has been considerably milder. notably, there have been none of the atrocities that characterized the macías era.