www.signonsandiego.com/news/world/20050622-0616-bissau-vote.htmlGuinea-Bissau election goes to runoff, Yala out
By Alberto Dabo
REUTERS
6:16 a.m. June 22, 2005
BISSAU – A presidential election to restore democratic rule to Guinea-Bissau two years after a coup will go to a second round because no candidate won an outright majority, the electoral commission said Wednesday.
The runoff vote in the tiny West African nation will be between Malam Bacai Sanha of the main PAIGC party, who won 158,276 votes, and former military ruler Joao Bernardo Vieira, known as "Nino," who gained 128,918 votes in Sunday's election, according to provisional results.
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Kumba Yala, the man ousted as leader in the 2003 putsch, came third with 111,606 votes. Yala set nerves on edge ahead of the vote when he declared himself president in May and later was accused of attempting a coup in the unstable poor nation.
Election officials did not give percentages for the candidates' vote. There were 538,466 people registered to vote and officials said turnout was more than 80 percent.
Sunday's vote ended two years of transitional government since the army ousted Yala. Many in the former Portuguese colony hope it will end a string of coups and uprisings that have hindered development for decades.
The three main contenders were all former rulers of the impoverished country, which has been chronically unstable since a bloody army revolt in 1998.
Some in the coastal capital Bissau had feared more turmoil once the results were announced but there was no immediate word of trouble.
International observers said the election in Guinea-Bissau, whose population of around 1.4 million scrapes by on an average $140 a year, was well organized and transparent.
(Additional reporting by Diadie Ba in Dakar)
