Embal, a 53-year-old former army general,is up against 11 other candidates.The strongest of them is Fernando Dias da Costa, a 47-year-old relative newcomer backed by former prime minister Domingos Simes Pereira.

Dias also has the backing of the main opposition party, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, which led the fight for independence from Portugal in the 1960s and 1970s.

That party was barred from fielding its own candidates for the first time, after authorities said it filed papers late.

Analysts are predicting a close race between Embal and Dias da Costa, and a runoff will be held if no candidate gets more than 50 percent of the vote.

Nearly half the countrys population of 2.2 million citizens were registered, and turnout exceeded 65 percent.

Provisional results will be announced on Thursday, Idrissa Diallo, spokesperson for the national electoral commission, told a press briefing late Sunday.

Guinea-Bissau youth hope presidential vote brings better life

Contentious vote

The election is seen as one of the most contentious votes in recent history because of the exclusion of the main opposition party.

The democracy we knew... is no longer the model we are experiencing; we are experiencing a model defined by a single person, said political analyst Augusto Nansambe.

One of the worlds poorest countries, with half its population considered poor, according to the World Bank,Guinea-Bissauhas emerged as a hub fordrug traffickingbetween Latin America and Europe.

The small coastal nation betweenSenegalandGuineawent through at least nine coups between 1974, when it gained independence fromPortugal, and 2020, when Embalo took office.

Guinea-Bissaus president dissolves parliament after last weeks failed coup

Embalo claims to have survived another three since then, though his opponents have accused him of manufacturing crises as an excuse for crackdowns, which he denies.

(with newswires)

Originally published on RFI