A look at the East Timor presidential election candidates

The Associated PressPublished: April 8, 2007
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/04/08/asia/AS-POL-East-Timor-Elections-Glance.php

DILI, East Timor: About half a million voters are eligible to cast ballots Monday in East Timor's second presidential elections. Eight candidates are running, with three lead contenders:

_JOSE RAMOS-HORTA: independent, half-Portuguese intellectual, became prime minister when government fell last year amid widespread violence. Shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with Bishop Carlos Belo for 24 years of nonviolent resistance to Indonesian occupation. Took East Timor's plight for independence to the world stage while in exile and became its first foreign minister.

_FRANCISCO "LU-OLO" GUTERRES: Revolutionary Front of an Independent Timor-Leste (Fretilin), incumbent for the left-wing party, which has a strong grass-roots following stemming from ties with the freedom movement. A former resistance fighter.

_FERNANDO "LASAMA" DE ARAUJO: Democratic Party (PD), imprisoned in 1991 by the Indonesians for participating in a funeral march on Nov. 12 when troops gunned down hundreds of unarmed civilians in what is known as the Santa Cruz massacre. Led party for 15 years and is widely considered a human rights defender.

REMAINING CANDIDATES: Francisco Xavier do Amaral, of the Timorese Social Democratic Association (ASDT), became the first head of state after independence from Portugal in 1975, but East Timor was invaded by Indonesia 10 days later; Joao Carrascalao of the Democratic Timorese Party (UDT); Lucia Lobato of the Social Democrat Party (PSD): Avelino Coelho da Silva of the Timorese Socialist Party (PST); and Manuel Tilman of the Sons of the Mountain Warriors (KOTA).