Voters in East Timor yesterday flocked to polling stations to cast their ballots in parliamentary elections, hoping for an end to years of political deadlock in Asia’s youngest country.
This is the fifth parliamentary poll since East Timor gained independence from Indonesia in 2002 after a 24-year occupation, with 65 national lawmakers to be elected to a five-year mandate.
As polling stations opened at 7am, voters formed long lines, carrying umbrellas for shade as they patiently waited their turn.
Photo: AFP
“All people came to give their voices, because one voice can make a change,” 61-year-old voter Cesar dos Santos de Carvalho said at a polling station in the capital, Dili.
“I hope the political party that I chose can put attention on health, education, infrastructure and agriculture, because these are the priority sectors that all people need,” he said.
The young democracy has 890,000 registered voters, and 17 parties are vying for seats, but the election is expected to mainly be a showdown between the two largest.
The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, also known as Fretilin, leads the coalition currently in power, while the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) is hoping to make a comeback.
CNRT is led by Xanana Gusmao, the country’s first president until 2007, while Fretilin’s leader is former prime minister Mari Alkatiri.
Both are considered icons of the independence era and are veterans of East Timor politics, but they have been locked in a bitter feud for decades. Younger voters make up a large part of the electorate in the country of 1.3 million people, 65 percent of whom are younger than 30.
“I voted for CNRT. I support Xanana. He is ... an influential character that leads with responsibility. He has integrity and loves this country,” 27-year-old student Renaldo de Andrade said.
CNRT won a presidential election last year after capturing 62 percent of the vote in a runoff, with Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Gusmao ally Jose Ramos-Horta assuming the post.
Gusmao is hoping to build on that momentum by taking over the legislature, but he might need to forge an alliance with smaller parties.
Fretilin have vowed to secure a clear victory and retain their lead in parliament.
“If Fretilin wins for this period, the important thing that we have to do is combat corruption and invest more in education, health and agriculture,” Alkatiri said yesterday, after casting his ballot.
Russia and Ukraine have exchanged prisoners of war in the latest such swap that saw the release of hundreds of captives and was brokered with the help of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), officials said on Monday. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that 189 Ukrainian prisoners, including military personnel, border guards and national guards — along with two civilians — were freed. He thanked the UAE for helping negotiate the exchange. The Russian Ministry of Defense said that 150 Russian troops were freed from captivity as part of the exchange in which each side released 150 people. The reason for the discrepancy in numbers
A shark attack off Egypt’s Red Sea coast killed a tourist and injured another, authorities said on Sunday, with an Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs source identifying both as Italian nationals. “Two foreigners were attacked by a shark in the northern Marsa Alam area, which led to the injury of one and the death of the other,” the Egyptian Ministry of Environment said in a statement. A source at the Italian foreign ministry said that the man killed was a 48-year-old resident of Rome. The injured man was 69 years old. They were both taken to hospital in Port Ghalib, about 50km north
‘MAGA CIVIL WAR’: Former Trump strategist Bannon said the H1-B program created ‘indentured servants,’ but Musk said that he was willing ‘to go to war on this issue’ US president-elect Donald Trump on Saturday weighed in on a bitter debate dividing his traditional supporters and tech barons such as Elon Musk, saying that he backs a special visa program that helps highly skilled workers enter the country. “I’ve always liked the [H1-B] visas, I have always been in favor of the visas, that’s why we have them” at Trump-owned facilities, he told the New York Post in his first public comments on the matter since it flared up this week. An angry back-and-forth, largely between Silicon Valley’s Musk and traditional anti-immigration Trump backers, has erupted in fiery fashion, with Musk
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Poland on Tuesday expressed concern about “the political crisis” in Georgia, two days after Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of the South Caucasus nation, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s EU aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. “We strongly condemn last week’s violence against peaceful protesters, media and opposition leaders, and recall Georgian authorities’ responsibility to respect human rights and protect fundamental freedoms, including the freedom to assembly and media freedom,” the three ministers wrote in a joint statement. In reaction
RSS