20000116

Guinea-Bissau

presidential

polls: second

round today

BISSAU: Guinea-Bissau voters heading for the polls on Sunday for the second round of a presidential vote which they hope will concretize the west African country's return to democracy after last year's military coup. In the running are opposition candidate Kumba Yala, who won the first round of voting on November 27, and interim president Malam Bacai Sanha.

The outcome is far from sure, observers say. Yala, a philosophy teacher and head of the Party for Social Renewal (PRS), was initially thought poised for a comfortable vicotry. He won 38.8 percent of the votes in the first round and has the support of all opposition candidates.

But Sanha, who heads the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde (PAIGC), has the support of former junta boss Ansumane Mane, who was behind the May coup that ousted president Joao Bernardo Vieira.

Sanha won 23.3 percent of votes in the first round. And Yala's deteriorating health Ñ he was airlifted to a Lisbon hospital for treatment on December 31 Ñ has raised questions over his suitability for the job.

A UN official in Guinea-Bissau, Samuel Nana Sikam, said Mane had promised him the junta would remain neutral during the voting.

Sikam also confirmed that funds promised by the international community for the second round of voting had been released. He said it was up to the authorities "to use the money properly".

The president of the national election commission said workers in electoral bureaus had been paid wages owing to them. The workers had threatened not to open polling stations on Sunday in protest.ÑAFP