East Timor poll candidates threaten court action

Stephen Fitzpatrick
in Dili
April 11, 2007

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,21539664-601,00.html

EAST Timor's presidential election is facing court action even before it goes into a runoff vote, with more than half of the candidates today announcing they will not recognise the outcome of the poll because of what they termed voting irregularities.
The election will go into a runoff vote, with the ruling Fretilin party's Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres facing off against one other challenger, the national election commission said today. “Guterres is already cleared for the second round,” Faustino Cardoso, the commission's president, said.

Nevertheless, the five candidates – including the candidate from the opposition Democratic Party, Fernando “La Sama” de Araujo, who is third in the polling – say they will not recognise any outcome of the poll.

The five, who also include candidates Lucia Lobato, Avelino Coelho, Xavier do Amarall and Manuel Tilman, cited instances of what they described as voter intimidation, vote rigging and inadequate identity-checking.

They demanded a recount be held in Dili in front of all eight candidates and their scrutineers. Although that is extremely unlikely to happen, the candidates said they would formally challenge the outcome of the poll in court before the runoff vote once a result has formally been declared by the electoral commission.

It was not immediately clear which of two other main challengers will face Guterres in the May 8 runoff.

Popularly known as Lu Olo, Guterres had a 28.3 per cent share with 354,033 votes counted after Monday's presidential poll, the first since impoverished East Timor achieved independence in 2002.

Nobel laureate Jose Ramos Horta, the tiny country's current prime minister, was in second place with 22.5 per cent, Cardoso said, while the candidate from the opposition Democratic Party, Fernando “La Sama” de Araujo, won 18.6 per cent.

The runoff is needed as no candidate won more than 50 per cent in the first round.

Observers said Monday's election was generally open, orderly and peaceful after fears that the former Portuguese colony's violent past heralded election unrest.

Ramos Horta expressed serious misgivings today, saying there had been many allegations of impropriety during the poll, but pledged not to challenge the result if he failed to make the runoff.

“I believe that, whatever the result, we must all honour it and work toward a peaceful acceptance of the first ballot.”

Eight candidates had stood to replace incumbent president Xanana Gusmao, a charismatic former guerrilla leader who did not seek re-election and wants to become prime minister, which in East Timor is a more powerful position.

The election followed a turbulent year in East Timor.

Violence erupted in April and May last year after the prime minister at the time, Fretilin's Mari Alkatiri, dismissed hundreds of army deserters.

Firefights subsequently broke out between factions of the military as well as between the army and police, and degenerated into gang violence.

- with AFP