Timorese Decide on UN Withdrawal
East Timorese went to the polls yesterday to choose members of parliament, following a relatively peaceful two-round presidential contest in March and April.
Polls opened early yesterday in an electoral process that is expected to result in the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers in December.
Twenty-one parties have fielded candidates for the 65-seat parliament. The two top parties are the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction, or CNRT, and the Fretilin .
The former Portuguese colony achieved independence in 1975, but was occupied by Indonesia until voters chose independence in an international referendum in 1999. Pro-Indonesian militants began a bloody campaign of retribution, which was ended by the introduction of Australian-led peacekeepers.
In 2002, East Timor was internationally recognized as independent. Despite intermittent violence, East Timor, also known as Timor-Leste , has been relatively peaceful. The last elections were held in 2007.
There have been concerns that violence could reignite in the energy-rich but underdeveloped state if, as predicted, none of the 21 parties wins a parliamentary majority and a fragile coalition takes power.
Presidential polls that were held over two rounds in March and April, however, passed off peacefully.
The United Nations sees the Timorese elections as the last big test that will decide whether its remaining 1,300 peacekeepers and other security staff can withdraw as planned within six months.
The country has offshore fields of oil and natural gas and its Petroleum Fund has swelled to $10 billion, but corruption is endemic.
Half of East Timor's 1.1 million people are officially classified as living in poverty, posing the main challenge for the future government.
The vote will decide whether East Timor, which celebrated a decade of formal independence in May, is ready to take on its own security.
A 450-strong International Stabilization Force (ISF) -- made up of troops from New Zealand and Australia -- is also awaiting the outcome of the poll before finalizing a pullout.
The United Nations Integrated Mission in East Timor (UNMIT) -- with a total current military, police and civilian force of about 3,000 -- was deployed in 2006, after a political crisis in which dozens were killed and tens of thousands displaced, with a mandate to restore security.
The only major violence since then was a failed assassination attempt in 2008 on then president Jose Ramos-Horta, the Nobel peace laureate who lost to Taur Matan Ruak in the recent presidential election.
Ramos-Horta, who still commands popular respect, has thrown his weight behind the 66-year-old Gusmao and a unity government.
However, Fretilin, which received the largest number of votes in 2007 but failed to form a coalition, has dismissed any talk of working with the CNRT on forming a post-election government.
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