Voters in Guinea-Bissau went to the polls on Sunday looking for a leader who can give them a chance to end years of military infighting and cocaine smuggling cartels.

Former president Joao Bernardo Vieira was assassinated in March in apparent revenge for the killing of the head of the army.

Whoever of the 11 standing candidates wins, the challenge ahead will be to pull the state back from failure and reforming security forces that are little more than rival militias.

[Unidentified Male Voter]:
"We need peace for our country to develop economically, socially and politically."

There were no reports of trouble on Sunday as voters queued in rural villages and Bissau, the run-down coastal capital of the former Portuguese colony.

[Unidentified Female Voter]:
"Guinea Bissau has a lot of problems, that's why I'm voting for a new president."

The vote is a test not only for the country of around 1.6 million people, but for a region worried at the retreat of democracy after coups in Guinea and Mauritania, and a deepening political crisis in Niger.

[Carlos Gomez, Jr. Guinea Bissau Prime Minister]:
"I think people will vote massively so Guinea can achieve political stability."

There is a possibility of no outright winner in the ballot of around 600 thousand voters, and a second round of voting will be in order.