Guinea-Bissau presidential poll goes to 2nd round

Guinea-Bissau's presidential election is to go to a second round on August 2 between Malam Bacai Sanha and Kumba Yala, two former heads of state, the National Electoral Commission said Thursday.

Eleven candidates, including three former presidents, ran in the first round on June 28 to replace assassinated leader Joao Bernardo Vieira in the coup-prone former Portuguese colony of 1.3 million people.

Sanha served as interim president from June 1999 to May 2000 and was candidate for the long-dominant African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which already controls 67 of the 100 seats in the national assembly.

Yala's time in office between 2000 and 2003 was marked by wide fiscal mismanagement and sweeping arrests of opposition figures until he was brought down in a coup.