East Timor gears up for election after violence-hit campaign
DILI, East Timor: East Timor is set to hold weekend elections after a campaign marred by violence and political mudslinging as the impoverished country struggles to buoy its oil-dependent economy.
It will be the second general election in less than a year after a months-long political impasse saw the 65-member parliament dissolved in January.
Political parties on the tiny half-island nation of 1.2 million people made their final pitch to voters Wednesday, wrapping up a tension-filled campaign.
Violent weekend clashes broke out between supporters of the Fretilin party and backers of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) led by former president and independence hero Xanana Gusmao.
Some 16 people were injured and a couple of vehicles were torched, according to the Australia Timor-Leste Election Observer Mission.
East Tim or–a former Portuguese colony which won independence in 2002 after a brutal, 24-year occupation by neighbouring Indonesia – has been wracked by violence before.
In 2006, dozens were killed as political rivalries erupted into open conflict on the streets of the capital Dili.
The fragile democracy wobbled again this year as parliament was dissolved and new elections called amid tensions between former prime minister Mari Alkatiri’s minority government and the opposition centred around Gusmao’s CNRT.
Alkatiri’s Fretilin party, which narrowly won last July’s poll, collapsed after its bid to introduce a policy programme and new budget were thwarted by a hostile opposition.