Guinea-Bissau presidential vote goes into run-off

Guinea-Bissau will hold a presidential election run-off after no candidate managed to secure an absolute majority in the first round of the vote.

The election commission said on Wednesday that former Finance Minister Jose Mario Vaz will face Nuno Gomes Nabiam, the former chair of Bissau’s civil aviation agency, on May 18.

Vaz came first in Sunday’s vote with more than 40 percent of the votes while Nabiam, who is said to have been supported by the country’s army, garnered 25.1 percent of the ballots cast.

Preliminary results also showed the ex-minister’s Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC) has managed to win more than 50 seats in the 100-seat parliament.

Officials expect the presidential and parliamentary vote to put an end to decades of instability in the African nation.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has praised the election, saying they had “clearly expressed their desire for the full return to constitutional order in their country.”

The Sunday elections were the first polls since the military staged a coup in 2012, after which the European Union suspended aid donations to the impoverished West African nation.

The country has also witnessed several coups since it gained independence from Portugal in 1974. No elected leader has served a full term in office.

The new leader and government will also face a difficult task of fighting poverty as two-thirds of the country’s population of 1.6 million live below the poverty line.

The impoverished country is plagued by an ailing economy, cocaine trafficking and widespread corruption.