East Timorese form long lines to cast election votes
>> DILI: Voters in East Timor queued up yesterday to cast their vote in the country’s fourth parliamentary elections since independence in a ballot where campaigning has focused on development and jobs in Asia’s youngest democracy.
More than 700,000 East Timorese are registered to vote in the country, which is home to 1.2 million people.
Over 20 political parties are vying for 65 seats in parliament as frustration grows over the government’s failure to use the wealth generated by oil and gas sales to support development and create jobs.
The parliamentary election will determine the country’s prime minister. The official results of the election is expected to be announced by Aug 6, although preliminary results should come much earlier.
East Timorese picked former independence fighter Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres as president in an election in March.
Both the presidential and parliamentary elections are the first since the United Nations ended its peacekeeping operations in 2012.
The former Portuguese colony was invaded by neighbouring Indonesia in 1975. An often violent 24-year resistance movement took East Timor to independence in 2002 and many of its key figures still feature prominently in running the country.
Xanana Gusmao, another former independence fighter who was also East Timor’s first president after independence, and his National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) party are seen as the frontrunners in Saturday’s vote. CNRT is also part of the current governing coalition.
If his party wins, Mr Gusmao said it would continue development focusing on agriculture and tourism.