VOA标准英语2009-Gunmen Kill Presidential Candidate in Guinea

（单词翻译）

Unidentified gunmen have killed a presidential candidate in Guinea Bissau. Campaigning is due to start Saturday for an election to replace long-time president Joao Bernardo Vieira who was assassinated¹ in March.

State radio says gunmen broke into the home of Baciro Dabo around 4:00 a.m. (local) Friday morning and shot him in his bed.

The former interior minister had close ties to President Vieira. Though he was running in this election as an independent candidate, analysts² say Dabo had the backing of Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Jr.

The prime minister initially³ wanted the ruling party to make interim⁴ leader Raimundo Pereira its presidential candidate. But when the central committee chose former national assembly chair Malam Bacai Sanha instead, analysts say Gomes began supporting Dabo.

His murder comes just a day before the start of campaigning to replace President Vieira, who was killed in his home in March hours after a bomb blast killed his chief political rival, Army Chief of Staff General Batista Tagme Na Waie.

It is the latest violent change of power in a country that has seen a series of army mutinies and coups⁵ since independence from Portugal in 1974.

Regional diplomats⁶ say that instability has been made worse by Latin American drug gangs using remote airstrips along Guinea-Bissau's coastline to smuggle⁷ cocaine⁸ to Europe.

Several candidates are running to succeed President Vieira. But the vote scheduled for June 28 is expected to be primarily a race between the ruling party's Sanha and the main opposition⁹ Social Renewal¹⁰ Party's Kumba Yala.