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Guinea Bissau vote goes smooth amid hopes for stability

BISSAU (AFP) — Guinea Bissau voted Sunday in parliamentary elections that international observers hope will boost stability in a poor west African nation which has become a hub for South American drug traffickers.

The eight-million-dollar (six-million-euro) elections, mostly paid for by the international community, are seen as crucial to getting the former Portuguese colony, plagued by political instability, a strong government.

"The day unfolded calmly and orderly without tension or intimidation. The turnout was very high, our estimate is between 70 and 80 percent," Johan van Hecke, head of the European Union observer mission, told a press conference.

"No incidents were reported," he said after polls closed at 5:00 pm (1700 GMT). More than 150 international observers monitored the vote for the 100-seat parliament.

The first results are expected to be released in a few days but the electoral commission would not give any timetable.

The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde (PAIGC), which has been dominant since independence in 1974, is favourite to win the election.

President Joao Bernardo Vieira was ousted from the PAIGC before the 2005 presidential elections when he ran as an independent candidate.

He is now hoping to get support from the newly formed Republican Party for Independence and Development (PRID) headed by a close Vieira ally.

The PAIGC also faces competition from the Party for Social Renovation (PRS) of former president Kumba Yalla, who was ousted in a 2003 coup.

Many ordinary voters in Guinea Bissau said they hoped a new government would bring change and lift the 1.3 million residents out of poverty.

"The first priority of the next government is education: the schools are closed and the teachers are not getting paid. The next is health care. There is a lot of cholera here," Arthemisa, 33, told AFP.

The country languishes at the bottom of the United Nations development index, only 37 percent of the population has been to school and the country is currently battling a cholera epidemic.

"The population wants a change," said the head of Guinea Bissau's national electoral commission, El Hadji Malam Mane.

"Paying salaries, that's the priority," added a driver employed at the tourism ministry, who asked to remain anonymous.

Pedro Silva, a 41-year-old driver, was sceptical that a new government would bring change, especially in the fight against drugs traffickers.

"Our own government is involved in the trafficking. So if the government wants to attack the plague of drugs it would have to fight itself," he said.

International experts say Guinea Bissau does not have strong enough state institutions to take on the international drugs cartels which use it as a hub to transport South American cocaine to the lucrative European market.

"The fight against narco-trafficking will go on, no matter which government is returned from this vote," said the country's chief prosecutor, Luis Manuel Cabral after casting his vote.

Guinea Bissau , which lists cashew exports as its biggest source of income, is in danger of becoming Africa's first "narco-state," they warn.

The international community also sees the elections as a crucial step in rebuilding the country a decade after it was torn apart by civil war in 1998 and 1999.

Guinea Bissau has been plagued by a series of bloody coups and uprisings as well.

"The hope is that the elections will show a clear majority and (create) a stable government," the head of the European Commission's delegation, Franco Nulli, told AFP.