Troubled East Timor goes to the polls to elect president

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/05/09/asia/AS-GEN-East-Timor-Elections.php
The Associated PressPublished: May 8, 2007

DILI, East Timor: Election workers began tallying votes in East Timor's run-off presidential poll on Wednesday, with both candidates confident of victory in a contest seen as key to resolving bitter political rivalries in Asia's youngest and poorest nation.

Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for his nonviolent resistance to 24 years of Indonesian occupation, is tipped by most analysts to beat former resistance fighter Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres. Results are not expected until Friday.

The leading local newspaper, Suara Timor Lorosae, projected a Ramos-Horta landslide with 75 percent of the vote, based on its own count at polling stations across the country. Its banner headline read: "Thanks Xanana, welcome Horta," a reference to the popular outgoing president, Xanana Gusmao.

Election authorities estimated that voter turnout was 80 percent and said polling had been peaceful in the tiny country, which won independence in 1999 and a year ago descended into violence that killed dozens of people, drove 155,000 others from their homes and toppled the government.

"I will become the Timorese president to serve the people, resolve the crisis and establish peace and democracy," Guterres, 52, said after voting. "I want to win with dignity, but if I lose, I will also accept that with dignity."

Ramos-Horta, 57, cast his ballot in a town east of the capital, Dili, after lining up with fellow voters in the mostly Roman Catholic nation. He too predicted victory in the battle for the largely ceremonial job.

"If I win the election, I win a ... huge responsibility," said Ramos-Horta, who wore a T-shirt with an image of Jesus Christ on it. "But if I lose, I win my freedom to do whatever I want, to be a writer, to be an academic, to be a tourist, to travel."

The poll follows balloting last month that ended without an outright winner.

Voting patterns in the earlier poll showed the country was split along eastern and western lines, and experts voiced concerns that Wednesday's ballot and more significant parliamentary elections in June could further exacerbate these tensions.

"The essential first step for the winner will be to project an aura of all-encompassing authority and use rhetoric that will heal divisions," said Dr. George Quinn, head of the Southeast Asia Center at the Australian National University.

More than 524,000 people were eligible to vote and at some stations people began lining up before dawn. Officials had to deliver some ballots on horseback because the locations were so remote, the Election Commission said.

"It has been very peaceful so far, and we would be hoping that this will extend to the counting period," chief U.N. electoral officer Steven Wagenseil said after voting ended, adding he had seen no "indication of violence."

The new president will face awesome challenges. Despite sizable offshore oil and gas deposits, nearly half of East Timor's work force is unemployed, around 60 percent of children under five are malnourished and tens of thousands of people displaced last year remain in tent camps.

Since last year's crisis, a 1,200-strong Australian-led peacekeeping force has restored order and, along with a similar-sized contingent of U.N. police officers, now provides national security.

Ramos-Horta, who spent most of the Indonesian occupation in exile in Western nations lobbying for East Timorese independence, is regarded as the favorite chiefly because five losing candidates in the first round of voting urged their supporters to back him.

But Guterres is backed by Fretilin, the well-organized political party of the nation's former armed resistance to Indonesian rule. It is the ruling party, but last month's voting indicated support for it had dwindled.

In June's parliamentary elections, Gusmao, a key Ramos-Horta ally, plans to run for prime minister in a bid to seize control of Parliament from Fretilin.

Ramos-Horta has pledged to make it easier for foreign investors to do business in the country, and said the U.N. and international troops would be welcome to stay in the country for many years.

Guterres, who spent years fighting Indonesian troops in the jungles, is considered more nationalist and left-wing, but has shown no sign he will steer East Timor away from the free-market course it has pursued since independence.