East Timor’s second presidential ballot as a free nation will see two former guerrilla fighters face off in another round of voting, after Nobel peace laureate and East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta lost his re-election bid.
Ramos-Horta, who was the troubled nation’s voice during two decades of Indonesian occupation, conceded defeat yesterday after trailing in third place in the vote seen as a key test for the young democracy.
The election went into a second round, expected to be held on April 16, after none of the candidates in Saturday’s ballot garnered more than the 50 percent of the vote required for an outright win.
Photo: EPA
“On the stroke of midnight on May 19, I will hand over leadership of the country to the new president, one of the two who are now going for a second round,” Ramos-Horta told reporters in the capital, Dili.
He said he would hand over power “with my conscience completely at ease, because I will be handing over a country that is different from the one I received first as prime minister in 2006 and as president in 2007.”
The elections have so far passed off peacefully in the chronically unstable half-island nation of 1.1 million people, which was pushed to the brink of civil war after pre-poll violence that erupted in 2006 left at least 37 people dead.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Sunday congratulated the people of East Timor, saying he was “heartened that the election was conducted in an atmosphere of order and calm,” his spokesman said.
Opposition figure Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres and former East Timor Defence Force commander Taur Matan Ruak — both heroes of the nation’s long war against Indonesia’s occupation — will advance to the final round based on preliminary counts, election official Luiz Fernando Valls said.
Analysts said that the loss by Ramos-Horta, a popular leader who survived a 2008 assassination attempt, and the shift to lower-profile candidates, was part of the nation’s desire to move on from being an international cause.
Lu Olo and Ruak are fellow guerrillas who spent years in the hills and thick jungles, fighting against Indonesia’s brutal 24-year occupation, which ended with a bloody independence vote in 1999.
Guterres, 57, who heads the opposition Fretilin party, which is synonymous with the resistance, lost the presidency to Ramos-Horta in a 2007 run-off. On May 20, 2002, he was given the honor of announcing his nation’s independence.
Ruak, 56, campaigned in his camouflage fatigues, and has vowed to introduce mandatory military service if elected.
Ramos-Horta’s supporters said they were “crushed” that he was out of the race and expressed concern over “tough personalities” vying to become their next president.
“Ramos-Horta is very gentle, unlike the two candidates who are too tough and can be radical. I’m worried they will rule with an iron fist and shove policies down our throats,” 27-year-old housewife Marsela Jos Santos said.
Another voter, housewife Rita Da Silva, 30, said she would be supporting Ruak in the second round.
“Now that my clever diplomat Ramos-Horta is out, I will vote for Taur. Youth crime and violence break out often here, so I hope Taur can help to discipline them,” she said.
The vote is the first in a series of key events in the oil-dependent and impoverished country, which is still traumatized by the long Indonesian occupation.
In May, East Timor will -celebrate 10 years of independence, a landmark which came after three years of UN administration.
In June, voters will choose a new government in a general election.
At the end of the year, the nation bids goodbye to UN forces who have been stationed in the country since 1999.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in