Guinea-Bissau, the West African country of 1.4 million population, is to hold the presidential election on Sunday, after the assassination of President Joao Bernardo Vieira on March 2. The following is the brief introduction of major candidates.

-- Malam Bacai Sanha, the ruling Independence of Guinea- Bissauand Cape Verde (PAIGC). Born in May 1947, president of the National Assembly (parliament) between 1994 and 1999, he was named to head the transitional authority from 1999 to 2000. A candidate to run for the president in 1999 and 2005, he respectively lost to Kumba Yala and Joao Bernardo Vieira. He is the front runner for Sunday's election.

-- Henrique Rosa, non-party affiliation. Born in January 1946, an economic operator, he headed the National Electoral Commission in 1994. Interim president of Guinea-Bissau from September 2003 to October 2005, he organized the legislative elections in 2004, and then the presidential election in 2005. With the backing of 20 or so organizations of civil society, he is one of the favorites.

-- Kumba Yala, the Party of Social Renovation (PRS, opposition). Born in March 1953, once a teacher of philosophy, he used to be a member of the PAIGC. Elected president in 2000 and ousted in September 2003 in a coup d'etat, he then went in exile in Morocco. Returning to Guinea-Bissau in October 2006, he was elected the leader of the PRS. in 2008, he converted to Islam and changed his name as Mohamed Yala Embalo.

-- Francisca Vaz Turpin, the Party of Guinean Patriotic Union (UPG). The only woman to contend in the top-level race. Turpin, 55,refused the portfolio of the foreign minister under Yala.

-- Baciro Dabo, 50, the minister of territorial administration, an independent candidate, was assassinated on June 5 at his residence in the capital Bissau by "men in uniform."

-- The Supreme Court revoked the candidacy of former prime minister (1999) and leader of the Party for Democracy and Citizenship (PADEC), Francisco Jose Fadul, and that of Pedro Infanda (independent), for failing to resign from their public functions. Both men are lawyers.

-- The candidacy of another former prime minister Aristides Gomes (2005-2007), a member of the Republican Party for Independence and Development (PRID), was rejected for his absence from the country of "at least 90 days before filing his candidacy." Gomes left Guinea-Bissau following the assassination of President Vieira on March 2.

Source:Xinhua