DILI, East Timor (Reuters) — People began voting in East Timor on Monday (March 2) in an election that is seeing two former resistance fighters vie for the presidential ticket.
Lines formed outside polling booths, as voters queued to choose from a field of eight candidates contesting the fourth presidential poll since East Timor won independence from Indonesia in 2002.
Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres, backed by the party that led the independence struggle, Fretilin, is regarded by many as the frontrunner. He has been endorsed by resistance hero Xanana Gusmao and his CNRT party.
Another leading candidate is Democratic Party politician Antonio da Conceicao. The education minister has secured backing from his own party as well as the newly formed People’s Liberation Party (PLP) of the incumbent president Jose Maria de Vasconcelos.
Analysts say the challenge for any incoming government would be to wean the predominantly Roman Catholic nation away from reliance on oil money and diversify its sources of income into agriculture and manufacturing.
The president plays a largely ceremonial role, but it is an important post for underpinning unity, particularly with unemployment running at around 60 percent.
Monday’s election is the first since U.N. peacekeepers left the half-island nation in 2012.
The former Portuguese colony was invaded by neighbouring Indonesia in 1975. A 24-year, often violent, resistance movement achieved East Timor’s independence in 2002 and many of its key figures still feature prominently in the running of the country.
