Voters in Guinea Bissau went to the polls on Sunday in elections which international observers hope will stabilize the tiny West African country that has become a drugs hub.

Polling booths opened at 7.00 am (0700 GMT) for the country's electorate of over half a million to cast their ballots for the 100 seats in parliament. As dawn broke in the capital Bissau, men carrying torches and wearing fluorescent jackets with the word "staff" set up a polling booth under an acacia tree on the potholed sidewalk.

At 7.00 am the Setembro neighbourhood polling station was officially open. The ballots, printed in Portugal arrived in a transparent ballot box, also imported like most of the voting material. "The priority of the next government is to pay our salaries," Antonio Bernardo Viegas, one of the first people to cast a vote, said.

The 53-year old employee of the national printing works told AFP that the government was four months behind in paying public servants' salaries. Around the city, other polling booths were also functioning. "They started on time, everything is going well at least in the two polling stations I have visited," Jean Bambara, a election observer from Burkina Faso, said. The international community sees these parliamentary elections as a crucial step in rebuilding the country a decade since it was wracked by an 11-month civil war in 1998-9.

The African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cap Verde (PAIGC) which has been at the centre of politics in Guinea Bissau almost continuously since independence in 1974 is the favorite to win the election. It could, however, face competition from the newly formed Republican Party for Independence and Development (PRID). The PRID is headed by a Aristides Gomes, a very close ally of President Joao Bernardo Vieira, who was ousted from the PAIGC and won the 2005 presidential elections as an independent.

This peaceful electoral process resulted from a recent meeting that was held in The Gambia. Pioneered by President Yahya Jammeh, the 18 political parties that gathered on Gambian soil resolved to work together to ensure peaceful legislative elections. The meeting resulting in the signing of an MoU between the political parties.