Sanha wins Guinea-Bissau’s presidential election

BISSAU – Malam Bacai Sanha is the new president of Guinea-Bissau, election officials said yesterday. It was a rare, peaceful transition of power in the tiny West African nation, which has been wracked by coups, countercoups and a civil war.

Sanha took 63,39 per cent of Sunday’s presidential run-off vote, beating opponent Kumba Yala, who took 36,69 per cent, the electoral commission announced. They were competing to succeed President Joao Bernardo ‘Nino’ Vieira, who was assassinated in March.Electoral commission chief Desejado Lima da Costa said the polls were conducted fairly and without incident, with 61 per cent of the nation’s 594 000 voters turning out.Sanha said his victory was a sign that better days were ahead for the impoverished nation, whose only major export is the cashew nut.’It is not my victory,’ Sanha said. ‘It’s a victory of the people of Guinea-Bissau who embrace peace, progress and development.’His opponent praised the vote.’I have accepted this decision,’ said Yala. ‘It was democratic, and in democracy you can win and you can lose.’Sanha was interim president for a year following a 1998-1999 civil war, while Yala was elected president in 2000, but overthrown in a popular bloodless coup three years later.In the 35 years since its independence from Portugal, this nation of 1,5 million on the Atlantic Ocean has experienced numerous coups and a civil war. The violence and instability have taken their toll, leaving Guinea-Bissau third from last on the UN’s 2008 Human Development Index.Most of its people live without electricity or clean water and the average life expectancy is just 46 years.No one has been arrested for Vieira’s murder. He was killed hours after a bomb went off, killing his longtime rival, the head of the armed forces.- Nampa-AP