Opposition leader Umaro Sissoco Embalo beat the ruling party's Domingos Simoes Pereira in Guinea-Bissau's Dec. 29 run-off vote to be president of the West African nation.
Madem G15 party's Embalo garnered 54% of the vote, while Pereira, from the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, received 46%, the electoral commission chief Jose Pedro Sambu told reporters on Wednesday. Nearly three quarters of the country's 760,000 registered voters cast a ballot, Sambu said.
The 47-year-old former prime minister initially trailed Pereira in the first-round vote and will succeed President Jose Mario Vaz, who was the country's the first head of state in two decades to complete his term. Embalo is expected to stem corruption and restore stability in a country that's seen nine coups and coup attempts since independence, as well as the 2009 assassination of then-President Joao Bernardo Vieira.
The election results needs to be validated by the country's constitutional court.
To contact the reporter on this story: Katarina Hoije in Abidjan at khoije@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Andre Janse van Vuuren at ajansevanvuu@bloomberg.net, Yinka Ibukun
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