Voters in Guinea Bissau are choosing a new president Sunday.

The tiny west African nation has struggled through a dictatorship, three coups and the (2009)) assassination of a president since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974.

No elected president has served a full five year term since Guinea Bissau.

A challenge facing the nine candidates seeking the presidency is the use of the islands as a shipping point for the cocaine trade.

Frontrunners in the presidential election include Carlos Gomes Junior of the ruling African Party for the Independence of Guinea and Cape Verde, who resigned as Prime Minister to run, and former president Kumba Yala, who was overthrown in a 2003 coup.

The winner will succeed President Malam Bacai Sanha, who died in January following a lengthy illness.

Dozens of international observers will be monitoring the vote.