Equatorial Guinea's proposed constitutional changes are on course to be approved after virtually all the results from 60 percent of the polling stations were in favour, according to a government statement on Monday.

President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo's government has said the reforms are meant to promote democratic advances in the oil-producing nation. But rights groups say they will instead tighten his already firm grip on power. Obiang came to power in a coup d'etat in 1979.

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