East Timor’s Ramos-Horta takes commanding lead in presidential vote

East Timor presidential candidate Jose Ramos Horta appears to be like on as he talks to journalists after casting his poll throughout the second spherical of East Timor’s presidential election in Dili, East Timor, April 19, 2022. REUTERS/Lirio da Fonseca

DILI, April 20 (Reuters) – East Timor independence chief and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta is about to be the nation’s subsequent president, with the ultimate vote rely exhibiting he has secured 62% of the vote, in response to information from the nation’s elections company.

Timorese went to the polls within the half-island nation of 1.3 million folks on Tuesday, selecting between Ramos-Horta and ex-guerrilla fighter President Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres.

With 100% of the votes counted, Ramos-Horta had a robust lead with 62.09% of the votes, whereas Lu Olo had 37.91%, in response to information from the election administration company.

Ramos-Horta, 72, is one in every of East Timor’s greatest identified political figures and beforehand served as overseas minister, prime minister after which the nation’s second president, from 2007 to 2012.

He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1996 for his efforts to convey a peaceable decision to a guerrilla warfare in East Timor towards Indonesia’s occupation of the previous Portuguese colony.

Within the first spherical of the election in April, he narrowly missed securing an outright majority. An Australian educational calculated that he wanted simply 30,000 further votes to safe victory in Tuesday’s second spherical.

Talking after voting close to his dwelling within the capital of Dili, Ramos-Horta stated he was “very assured” he would win however would await the ultimate outcomes.

After years of political tensions between main events, this election has been broadly considered as essential to stability. Ramos-Horta has prompt he might use presidential powers to dissolve parliament and produce ahead a common election scheduled for subsequent yr.

East Timor’s first president, Xanana Gusmao, is backing Ramos-Horta on this election and has described the present authorities as “constitutionally illegitimate”.

Lu Olo, the incumbent, refused to swear in a number of ministers from Gusmao’s political celebration on the grounds they had been going through authorized investigations, together with for alleged corruption.

The following president might be sworn in on Could 20, the twentieth anniversary of East Timor’s restoration of independence.

Reporting by Kate Lamb in Sydney and Nelson Da Cruz in Dili; Enhancing by Cynthia Osterman and Emelia Sithole-Matarise

Our Requirements: The Thomson Reuters Belief Ideas.