East Timor yesterday voted for a new president, with a former guerrilla fighter tipped for victory after winning the backing of the two biggest parties, in a new sign of stability for Asia’s youngest nation.
The vote comes at a challenging time for the tiny half-island nation 15 years after independence, with oil reserves running dry and its leaders struggling to reach agreement with Australia over lucrative energy fields.
It is the first presidential election since the departure of UN peacekeepers in 2012, but despite fears of violence there has been only sporadic and low-level unrest in the run-up to the vote.
Photo: EPA
Francisco Guterres — known by his nom de guerre “Lu-Olo” — is favorite to win the presidency, which is largely ceremonial, but can have a key role in keeping the peace between feuding politicians.
He is leader of the second-biggest party, Fretilin, and also won the backing of independence hero Xanana Gusmao and his National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction party, the nation’s largest.
“I am sure I will win, that there will be no second round,” Guterres, who is facing seven challengers for the presidency, said after casting his vote in the capital, Dili.
He will have to secure more than 50 percent of the vote to avoid a run-off next month.
Democratic Party politician Antonio da Conceicao is seen as his closest rival in the fourth presidential election since East Timor gained independence in 2002 following a brutal 24-year Indonesian occupation.
East Timorese President Taur Matan Ruak is not seeking re-election.
Guterres’s unified candidacy could help stabilize a nation repeatedly rocked by bouts of violence, analysts said.
“That is good from the point of view of stability, because competitive politics can raise tensions,” said Damien Kingsbury, an East Timor expert from Australia’s Deakin University.
It suggests that the nation will continue to be led by a unified government following parliamentary elections later in the year, Kingsbury said.
However, he added that the absence of a viable opposition could raise concerns about government accountability.
Guterres is from a humble family and like many members of East Timor’s political class took part in the bloody struggle against Indonesian occupation.
He was Fretilin’s unsuccessful candidate for presidential polls in 2007.
Vasco Pires de Jesus, a 58-year-old laborer, said he was voting for him because “he is a fighter who fought alongside Xanana Gusmao in the forest to bring independence to this country.”
Whoever wins the vote will preside over a nation with huge challenges. East Timor remains a deeply poor nation and the government has struggled to improve the livelihoods of its 1.1 million people.
As well as diversifying the resource-rich economy away from a reliance on oil, the nation’s leaders must agree to a new sea border with Australia after tearing up a contentious maritime treaty that cuts through energy fields.
Polls closed at 3pm and preliminary results should be known within a few days.
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