East Timor votes for president in run-off amid political feud
- Jose Ramos-Horta, the front runner is up against incumbent president Francisco ‘Lu Olo’ Guterres in a vote seen as key to the nation’s political stability
- Winner will take office for five years from May 20 – the day East Timor celebrates the 20th anniversary of its independence from Indonesia
People across East Timor went to the polls on Tuesday to choose either a Nobel laureate or a former guerilla fighter – the incumbent president – as their next leader.
Front runner Jose Ramos-Horta has pledged to break a long-standing deadlock between the two main political parties in Southeast Asia’s youngest country should he win the run-off election against President Francisco “Lu-Olo” Guterres.
“If I win … I will hold a dialogue with political parties, including [Guterres’] Fretilin, so they can work together to maintain stability and peace in Timor-Leste,” the Nobel Peace Prize winner told journalists on Tuesday, holding aloft a finger stained purple after casting his vote.
Former guerilla leader Guterres, meanwhile, promised “to ensure national stability, and to adhere to the mission as president of the republic, which is inseparable from the constitution” at a polling station in the capital Dili.
Both candidates have pledged to respect the election results regardless of the outcome.
The poll is a rematch of a 2007 election won handily by Ramos-Horta, a former revolutionary hero.
The winner will take office for five years from May 20 – the day East Timor celebrates the 20th anniversary of its independence from Indonesia, which occupied the former Portuguese colony for 24 years.
