Nobel Peace Prize-winner Jose Ramos-Horta pledged to unite troubled East Timor on Thursday after the former resistance leader clinched the election as President of one of the world’s poorest nations.
Holding an unassailable lead with 73% of the votes and 90% of the ballots counted, Ramos-Horta offered hope to a nervous electorate after a year of bloodshed and unrest that looked to tear the tiny country apart.
”I will do my best not to fail the people who have voted for me, and not lose their trust and lose sight of their aspirations,” he said, promising to work with defeated Francisco Guterres of the ruling Fretilin party.
”It is going to be five years of hard work, but I will work with Fretilin and make sure that the Fretilin leaders do not feel they have lost,” he said.
Turn-out was heavy in Wednesday’s election, the first for president since the country won independence in 2002 following a bloody separation period after a quarter-century of occupation by neighbouring Indonesia.
Ramos-Horta, who won the Nobel after bringing the plight of East Timor to the world’s attention, had been the favourite over the candidate from Fretilin — which he himself once founded as a resistance movement.
The outgoing prime minister had taken 273 685 votes and Guterres 101 374 with 90% of the ballots counted, said Maria Angelina Sarmento, spokesperson for the National Election Commission.
”Jose Ramos-Horta has won 73% of the vote and Francisco Guterres has won 27%,” Sarmento said. Counting was continuing with official results expected no earlier than Friday, she said.
A spokesperson for Guterres was not available for comment on the latest figures.
The presidency is a largely ceremonial position, but many Timorese are hoping the man who replaces charismatic president Xanana Gusmao will help guide the nation out of more than a year of troubles.
Gusmao, a former guerrilla leader, has expressed his intention to run for prime minister, a more powerful post, in parliamentary elections next month.
The United Nations mission in East Timor hailed Wednesday’s poll as peaceful, with observers saying the number of voters was likely to match or exceed the figure recorded in the first round held on April 9.
More than 524 000 people were eligible to vote in Wednesday’s election in a nation of one million.
Observers have expressed concern that supporters of the losing candidate could take to the streets and trigger fresh outbreaks of violence.
Unrest erupted last year after then prime minister Mari Alkatiri dismissed hundreds of army deserters. Firefights broke out between factions of the military, and between the army and police, and degenerated into gang violence.
Foreign peacekeepers arrived in May 2006 to quell the unrest, which left at least 37 people dead and forced 150 000 to flee their homes. — Sapa-AFP