Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta scored a landslide victory in East Timor’s presidential election, according to preliminary results published yesterday by the election secretariat.
The 72-year-old secured 397,145 votes, or 62.09%, against incumbent Francisco “Lu-Olo” Guterres’ 242,440, or 37.91%, the secretariat’s website showed after all ballots were counted.
“The count of the district, national and regional vote has been completed”, said Acilino Manuel Branco, general director of the election secretariat.
The election results still need to be validated by the country’s electoral commission.
The victory gives Ramos-Horta his second term in office. He served as president of Southeast Asia’s youngest country from 2007-2012 and was also the country’s first prime minister.
“The elections were competitive, and the campaign was largely peaceful,” EU observer Domenec Ruiz Devesa said yesterday, adding the counting process had been assessed “positively”. Ramos-Horta will be inaugurated on May 20 — the 20th anniversary of East Timor’s independence from Indonesia, which occupied the former Portuguese colony for 24 years.
He had pledged to use his five-year term to break a longstanding deadlock between the two main political parties.
The election could trigger a period of uncertainty, as Ramos-Horta has previously indicated he might dissolve the parliament if he won the election.
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa called Ramos-Horta on Wednesday to convey “the warmest congratulations on the election as President of the Republic of Timor-Leste”, according to a press release from the presidency.
LANDSLIDE: Jose Ramos-Horta.
