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East Timor polls undecided between two rival parties

Sunday, 23 July 2017 1:47 PM [ Last Update: Sunday, 23 July 2017 6:07 PM ]

Election officials open a ballot box during counting for the parliamentary election in Dili on July 22, 2017. (AFP photo)

Preliminary results from general elections in East Timor suggest that two main parties in the coalition government still lead the polls neck-and-neck.

Early results published Sunday said President Francisco Guterres’ Fretilin party had about 30 percent of the votes while the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) gained 28 percent of the votes.

Both The Democratic Party and former President Taur Matan Ruak’s new Popular Liberation Party (PLP) gained 10 percent of the votes. The polls were contested by a total of 21 political parties.

The results mean that neither of the two main parties could emerge as the winner and secure enough support to govern alone. Fretilin and CNRT form the current coalition government and will remain so in future.

The CNRT, led by Xanana Gusmao, an independence hero, was expected to gain a sweeping victory. It had 36.7 percent of votes in the 2012 parliamentary election.

The polls, which will decide the post of prime minister as the most influential political figure in East Timor, were the first general elections since the departure of United Nations peacekeepers in 2012.

East Timorese line up to vote during parliamentary election in Dili on July 22, 2017. (AFP photo)

The new government in East Timor would face big challenges, including how to improve the livelihoods of its 1.2 million people as official estimates suggest half the country’s population lives in poverty. The new government is also expected to diversify East Timor’s resource-rich economy and reduce the country’s reliance on oil income. Determining maritime borders with Australia is also a contentious issue as East Timor continues to protest a previous deal which remained mostly ambiguous when it came to shared energy fields.

East Timor is a former Portuguese colony in the Southeast Asia region. Indonesia brutally invaded the country and occupied it in 1975. The nation gained independence in 2002 and was policed by UN forces for the next 10 years.

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