Guinea-Bissau held watershed presidential and parliamentary elections Sunday aimed at ushering in a new era of stability in a country plagued by drugs and upended by a military coup. The polls cap four decades of chaos marked by a series of mutinies since the west African nation won independence from Portugal, and commentators have called for the new regime to finally bring the military into line.
The impoverished country has been stagnating for two years under the rule of a transitional government backed by the all-powerful military, with the economy anaemic and cocaine trafficking fuelling corruption.
Interim president Manuel Serifo Nhamadjo, who is not a candidate, told AFP he "hoped and wished to turn the page to stability". "The problem of Guinea-Bissau is political and military, and everyone must work together in mutual respect," he said.
Chronic volatility has fanned poverty in the country of 1.6 million with few resources other than cashew nuts and fish, attracting South American drug cartels which have turned it into a hub of cocaine trafficking for west Africa.