Oil production in the tiny central African country, wedged between Gabon and Cameroon, has exceeded that of Gabon and the Republic of Congo, placing the minuscule nation, which is home to around one million people, behind Nigeria and Angola for African oil exports. Fueled by oil, the country's per capita gross domestic product shot to more than 1,170 dollars in 1999, and then up to 2,700 dollars in 2002 and 5,000 dollars last year, according to government figures. The economy grew by around 71 percent in 1997, the year after the oil exports began to flow, 22 percent in 1998 and 15 percent in 1999, according to World Bank figures. In 2002, it was still on its upward spiral, growing at around 20 percent, but still with little impact on the wellbeing of ordinary people. "Oil is for (President Teodoro) Obiang and his family, not for the people," lamented opposition leader Celestino Bacale ahead of presidential elections in December 2002, which were resoundingly won by Obiang, who has ruled Equatorial Guinea since he seized power in a coup in 1997. Bacale leads the Convergence for Social Democracy (CSPD) coalition ,deemed to be the only true opposition grouping contesting Sunday's elections, in which the electorate of 210,000 is called on to elect 100 lawmakers to the single-chamber parliament. Eight other opposition parties are, in reality, close to the current regime, and have called on their backers to vote for the Equatorial Guinea Democratic Party (PDGE), founded by Obiang in 1987 and which holds 7 of the 80 seats in the current parliament. All of Equatorial Guinea's 30 mayors are drawn from the PDGE, which is widely predicted to retain its crushing majority, both in parliament and in municipal councils, in Sunday's vote. The CSPD has campaigned on an anti-corruption ticket while the PDGE has vowed to lift living conditions for ordinary Equato-Guineans, most of whom continue to live in poverty despite the country swimming in offshore oil. A former Spanish colony, Equatorial Guinea depended on cocoa and coffee for the bulk of its export revenues until offshore oil began flowing in 1996. The oil boom has brought double-digit growth but also concerns over transparency and complaints that the petro-dollars are not benefitting ordinary Equato-Guineans. A number of aid programs sponsored by the World Bank and the IMF have been cut off since 1993 because of corruption and mismanagement. Many businesses are owned by government officials and their family members, and key government posts have been given to members of Obiang's entourage. Oil brings in 90 percent of export revenues, which go to the treasury, run by Obiang's brother Melchor Esono Edjo. The president's nephew, Baltasar Engonga Edjo, is economy minister; his eldest son Teodoro Nguema Obiang, is infrastructure minister, and the youngest son in the Obiang clan is secretary of state for hydrocarbons. In 2003, Equatorial Guinea produced some 300,000 barrels per day of oil according to official figures. Experts in Malabo predict that production figures will rise to 500,000 barrels per day this year. The annual budget has surged from the equivalent of some 15 to 22 million euros in the 1980s to 91 million euros this year, according to the economy ministry. Imported vehicles prowl the streets of Malabo, where luxury housing has sprung up in recent years to accommodate expatriate staff of oil companies, many of them from the United States. But the country's wealth has done nothing to bridge the staggering income gap between a small circle of elite Equato-Guineans and the bulk of the population. "Oil money will not be distributed and will not be used to provide pay Rises but is essentially destined for the infrastructure, education and health sectors," President Obiang has said. Several public works companies have sprung up, many of them run by government officials "who find a way to pocket money" intended to renovate buildings or build roads, one civil servant denounced. Meanwhile, in Malabo's poor neighbourhoods, Equato-Guinean families pack into tin-roof huts and subsist under appalling social conditions, excluded from the benefits that should go with the country's oil wealth PIN//AFP