People across East Timor went to the polls on Tuesday to choose either a Nobel laureate or a former guerrilla fighter — the incumbent president — as their next leader. Frontrunner Jose Ramos-Horta has pledged to break a longstanding 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 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”.
Polling stations closed at 3 pm local time (6 GMT) and electoral staff wearing official green polo shirts started counting the ballots. The process usually takes several days to be completed, and this year nearly 860,000 of East Timor’s 1.3 million citizens are eligible to vote.
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. —AFP
