Preliminary election results

Kumba Yala of the Partido da Renovacao Social (PRS) won 38.46 percent of the valid votes in Guinea-Bissau's presidential polls, followed by interim president Malam Bacai Sanha, according to preliminary results from the Comissao Nacional de Eleccioes (CNE). Sanha, candidate of the Partido Africano da Independencia da Guine e Cabo Verde (PAIGC), received 23.42 percent. As none of the 12 candidates obtained an absolute majority of the 363,319 valid votes cast in the 28 November elections, the two front runners will contest a second round expected in January. In the legislative polls, held along with the presidentials, the PRS obtained 37 of the 102 seats (100 for Guinea-Bissau and 2 for the overseas vote) in parliament, followed by the Resistencia da Guinea (RGB) with 27 and the PAIGC - the party that ruled since independence from Portugal in 1975 - with 25. The 13 remaining seats went to five of the 10 other parties which fielded candidates in the legislatives. The CNE expects to have the final election results on Thursday. This will be followed by a 10-day period in which people can contest the results, while the second round of the presidentials is to be held 21 days after that, a humanitarian source told IRIN. The candidate who placed third in the presidentials, independent Faustino Imbali (8.17 percent of the votes), has already thrown his weight behind Yala. In a radio advertisement on Monday, he called on his supporters to vote for the PRS leader in the second round. Yala narrowly lost the 1994 presidentials to then incumbent Joao Bernardo Vieira.