DILI, East Timor (AP) – Voters in East Timor chose a president in a runoff yesterday between former independence fighters who’ve blamed each other for years of political paralysis.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta had a commanding lead in the election’s first round but failed to exceed 50 per cent of the votes and avoid the runoff. Ramos-Horta received 46.6 per cent, incumbent President Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres won 22.1 per cent and 14 other candidates split the rest of the votes in the March 19 election.
Polls closed at 3pm and vote-counting began at 1,200 polling centres across the tiny country. The winner of the runoff takes office on May 20.
“I call on people to accept whatever the results of this election wisely,” Guterres told reporters while voting in Dili, the capital.
Ramos-Horta, East Timor’s president from 2007 to 2012, and Guterres have blamed each other for years of political paralysis.
In 2018, Guterres refused to swear in nine Cabinet nominees from the National Congress of the Reconstruction of East Timor, known as CNRT, a party led by former prime minister and independence leader Xanana Gusmao, who backed Ramos-Horta’s run for president.
Guterres is from the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, known by its local acronym Fretilin.
Fretilin says Ramos-Horta is unfit for president, accusing him of causing a crisis as prime minister in 2006, when dozens were killed as political rivalries turned into open conflict on the streets of Dili.
