Voters in Guinea-Bissau cast their ballots on Sunday to pick a new president. Around 860,000 voters will choose between 12 presidential candidates.

At the top of the list of demands for many is improved living conditions, including better health care, education and infrastructure.

Guinea-Bissau’s population of some 2.2 million is also calling for more jobs and economic reforms.

Polling stations opened at 7am (local time and GMT) and are scheduled to close at 5pm. First results are expected no later than Thursday.

Main opposition party candidate barred

Incumbent President Umaro Sissoco Embalo, 53, is seeking re-election. If he succeeds, he will become the first head of state to serve two consecutive terms since the introduction of the multiparty system in 1994.

His biggest opponent is opposition candidate Fernando Dias, who has received the support of the powerful PAIGC opposition party, which was barred from the election.

The vote marks the first time in Guinea-Bissau’s history that PAIGC, which led the former Portuguese colony to independence in 1974 and was the country’s longstanding single party, will be absent from the ballot.

The party and its leader Domingos Simoes Pereira, who only recently returned from exile, were disqualified from running after the Supreme Court ruled their legislative and presidential applications had been submitted after the deadline.

Members of parliament to be elected

Sunday’s elections will also see voters choose all 102 members of parliament.

In 2023, Embalo dissolved the legislature, which was dominated by the opposition – and has since ruled by decree.

More than 6,780 security forces, including from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Stabilisation Force, have been deployed for the vote and the post-election period.

Guinea-Bissau’s air space, as well as land and sea borders, will be closed all day on Sunday.