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Independence leader and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta wins landslide victory in presidential election in East Timor
Asia: East Timor
Voters fo to the polls in East Timor’s presidential election
Summary
Voters went to the polls in East Timor to select a new leader. No candidate secured an absolute majority in the first round, paving the way for a second round between two political giants in the national story of Asia’a youngest country.
Primer on presidential election in East Timor
(March 19, 2022 — first round; April 19, 2022 — second round)
A presidential election was scheduled to be held in East Timor in March 2022. The first round would be held on March 19, 2022. If no candidate secured an outright majority, a second-round run off would be held on April 19, 2022 between the top two candidates.
The president is elected by the people for a five-year term and is eligible for a second term. The president is the head of state and plays a largely symbolic role but is the commander in chief of the military and is able to veto legislation, dissolve parliament, and call national elections.
The election would feature a wide slate of 15 candidates. Significantly, incumbent President Francisco Guterres, a former resistance fighter, would be seeking re-election. Also among the presidential candidates would be independence leader and Nobel laureate, Jose Ramos-Horta, who was expected to be President Guterres’ main rival.
President Guterres was the candidate of one of the two dominant political parties in East Timor — Freitilin. Ramos-Horta was the candidate of the National Congress of the Reconstruction of East Timor, known as CNRT. Ramos-Horta would likely be helped by the fact that he was representing the same party as that of famed and influential independence hero, Xanana Gusmao.
On election day, the voters of East Timor went to the polls to cast their ballots. At the time of writing, the vote counting was not completed. However, a partial count showed Ramos-Horta in the lead with 44.5 percent. Guterres was securing the second most votes with 24.1 percent. The two men would face each other in the run-off on April 19, 2022.
On the day of the election’s second round, voters went to the polls to choose between incumbent President Francisco Guterres and independence leader and Nobel laureate, Jose Ramos-Horta. Once the polls closed and the votes were counted, it was clear that Jose Ramos-Horta had secured a landslide victory with over 62 percent of the vote share. Francisco Guterres took close to 38 percent.
Ramos-Horta, who served as president from 2007 to 2012, was thus set to became president once again. He was awarded a Nobel prize for peace in 1996 for his efforts to facilitate “a just and peaceful solution to the conflict in East Timor.” In 2008, during his tenure as president, he survived an assassination attempt.
Ramos-Horta was scheduled to be inaugurated into power on May 20, 2022 — the 20th anniversary of East Timor’s independence from Indonesia, which carried out a brutal occupation of the former Portuguese colony for almost quarter of a century.
With Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak resigning after the government repeatedly failed to pass a budget, it was quite likely that parliamentary elections would follow the presidential polls.
Why is this election important?
East Timor is one of the world’s newest countries and certainly the newest nation state in Asia. This 2022 election would be its fifth since securing independence after a violent and difficult conflict with Indonesia. With former independence figures and resistance fighters dominating the election contest, it was clear that the political sphere in East Timor was forged from its resistance to Indonesian occupation. Moving forward, though, East Timor’s governing class would have to grapple with economic development, and significantly, the development of its oil and gas economy.
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