Timor-Leste heads to the ballot box for parliamentary election
Sign up now: Get insights on Asia's fast-moving developments
Sunday’s poll is the country’s fifth parliamentary election since Timor-Leste gained full independence in 2002.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Follow topic:
JAKARTA - Timor-Leste voters headed to the polls on Sunday in a parliamentary election that analysts said would likely see two resistance-era figures battle to be prime minister.
Sunday’s parliamentary election was the country’s fifth such polls since Timor-Leste gained full independence in 2002 following decades-long occupation by Indonesia.
As polling stations opened at 7am local time (6am Singapore time), voters formed long queues, carrying umbrellas for shade as they patiently waited their turn.
“All people came to give their voices, because one voice can make a change,” said 61-year-old voter Cesar dos Santos de Carvalho at a polling station in the capital Dili.
“I hope the political party that I chose can put attention on health, education, infrastructure and agriculture, because these are the priority sectors that all people need.”
Mr Jose Maria Vasconcelos, who has been prime minister since 2018, is backed by a four-party coalition led by the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin).
Analysts do not expect him to be appointed as prime minister again.
Seventeen parties are competing in the election, but two, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), led by independence hero Xanana Gusmao, and Fretilin, led by resistance figure Mari Alkatiri, are expected to dominate.
The next prime minister is expected to be Mr Gusmao or Mr Alkatiri, depending on whose party wins.
The two men are considered independence-era icons and are veterans of Timor-Leste politics, but they have been locked in a bitter feud for decades.
Younger voters make up a large part of the electorate in the country of 1.3 million people, 65 per cent of whom are under 30.
“I voted for CNRT. I support Xanana (Gusmao). He is… an influential character who leads with responsibility. He has integrity and loves this country,” said student Renaldo de Andrade, 27.
CNRT won a presidential election in 2022 after capturing 62 per cent of the vote in a run-off, with Nobel Peace laureate and Gusmao ally Jose Ramos-Horta assuming the post.
Mr Gusmao is hoping to build on that momentum by taking over the legislature, but he may need to forge an alliance with smaller parties.
Mr Alkatiri’s Fretilin, meanwhile, has vowed to secure a clear victory and retain its lead in Parliament.
“If Fretilin wins for this period, the important thing that we have to do is combat corruption and invest more in education, health and agriculture,” he said on Sunday after casting his ballot.
Timor-Leste has in recent years grappled with diversifying its oil- and gas-dependent economy. It is also struggling with poverty, the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic and devastating natural disasters, including a 2021 cyclone that killed at least 40 people.
“Xanana Gusmao has been in the opposition for the past three years and is trying to get back into power,” Professor Michael Leach of Australia’s Swinburne University said of the country’s former president and prime minister.
“CNRT and Fretilin will certainly be the two largest parties,” he added.
Some polls showed CNRT ahead.
Prof Leach said Mr Ramos-Horta’s victory in the presidential election was seen as paving a way for CNRT’s return to power. The party with a parliamentary majority will nominate the next prime minister. The new Parliament will take office on June 12. REUTERS, AFP
