Politicians in troubled East Timor made an Easter Sunday appeal for peace as police said they had arrested about 200 people in the weeks leading up to today's presidential election.
The faithful in the devoutly Roman Catholic nation thronged churches for Easter mass and President Xanana Gusmao appealed in a radio broadcast for a vote free of bloodshed or coercion amid fears for the election's credibility.
"Don't use intimidation, don't use violence to force people to vote for your candidate or other candidates," said the former guerrilla leader who is not seeking re-election.
PHOTO: AP PHOTO
"I ask all the candidates in the name of society to accept the result of the election heartfully," he said.
The poll is the first for the impoverished nation since gaining independence in 2002.
Fernando "Lasama" de Araujo, one of eight candidates standing for the largely ceremonial post of president, and a contender to win, said he did not expect a fair election in the former Portuguese colony.
"I hope that UN police and other defense forces from Australia and New Zealand can work hard to guarantee at least a peaceful day tomorrow," he said after mass.
Lasama, chairman of the opposition Democratic Party, was one of four candidates who on Friday said they feared many attempts had been made to manipulate the election process.
About 200 people have been arrested in the weeks ahead of today's election, which will be secured by more than 4,000 local and international police backed by peacekeeping troops, officials said yesterday.
Deputy UN Police Commissioner Hermanprit Singh said that in addition to the arrests, a large number of gang leaders and members remained in custody.
"We have been able to ensure with the prosecutors ... their continued detention so that the people who could have been the source of trouble during the election remain behind bars," Singh said.
At least 32 people were injured in election-related clashes on Wednesday in and around the capital Dili although most of the campaign was peaceful, according to the UN.
Today's vote comes about one month after Australian troops from the international security force in East Timor killed five armed supporters of a renegade soldier, Major Alfredo Reinado, who is still on the loose.
Last May, the peacekeepers were dispatched after the unrest killed at least 37 people and forced more than 150,000 to flee their homes. Intermittent violence blamed on gangs has continued since, and about 37,000 people are still displaced.
Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, who is in a three-way race with Lasama and ruling Fretilin party chairman Fransisco Guterres, said the country had reached a crossroads.
"It's a very important moment," the Nobel peace laureate said.
"We will have to follow the leader we are going to choose and help him so he can do this task better in the next five years," he said.
Reinado, criticized for his role in last year's bloody violence, urged voters to ditch East Timor's political establishment, including Ramos-Horta, Gusmao and Fretilin.
There had been fears the fugitive could destabilize today's vote but he remained silent during the two-week election campaign.
"We have to respect democracy with unity, peace and calm," Reinado said in a printed statement.
More than 522,000 people are registered to vote.
Gusmao yesterday handed ballot boxes to a polling booth in the capital Dili, where the cathedral was packed to overflowing with parishioners including refugees who live in nearby tents.
"I believe that people will behave very well," Gusmao told reporters.
It is the first ballot since independence in 2002 after a period of UN stewardship that followed a bloody 1999 separation from Indonesia, which invaded in 1975.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS