Guinea-Bissau's electoral body has declared Malam Bacai Sanha as winner of Sunday's presidential run-off vote. Sanha, former head of state (1999-2000) and candidate of ruling party PAIGC, scored 224, 259 votes (63%) defeating rival Kumba Yala, another ex-head of state, who got 129,973 votes.

Elections in Guinea-Bissau to replace assassinated President Joao Bernardo Vieira are to go to a second round, the electoral commissioner says. Mr Vieira was killed in March in apparent revenge for the death of the head of the army in a bomb blast. The two frontrunners from Sunday's vote are the ruling party's Malam Bacai Sanha with 39.6% of the vote and former President Kumba Yala with 29.4%.

Guinea-Bissau’s election on Sunday to replace its slain president will be a test for West Africa’s ability to stop the retreat of democracy as well as for a state destabilised by drug smugglers and army rivalries. The fact the vote is happening at all is something of an achievement within four months of President Joao Bernardo “Nino” Vieira being shot dead and after the killing of a top contender and another senior politician during the campaign.

The security forces in Guinea-Bissau have shot dead a minister and candidate in this month's presidential elections. The authorities say Baciro Dabo died in an exchange of fire when he resisted arrest over an alleged coup plot. But his supporters say he was asleep next to his wife when men in uniform burst into his house at 0400 local time (and GMT) and shot him several times.