With around 250,000 votes counted, the provisional results show the party of the ex-premier Alkatiri to be ahead with 30.1 per cent, followed by 22.1 per cent of the CNRT of Xanana Gusmao. The UN and international observers said the 30 June ballot was “free and fair”.

Dili (AsiaNews/Agencies) – Fretilin – the party currently in government – is ahead in ballot counting in East Timor, which went to the polls on 30 June for the first political election since Independence from Jakarta in 2002. With half of the votes counted, Fretilin is leading with 30.1 percent of the vote, compared to the 22.1 per cent of the favourite National Congress of East Timor's Reconstruction (CNRT) of the former head of state, Xanana Gusmao. This was declared today by the election commission's website.

Nearly 500,000 people eligible to vote chose from among 14 parties: the Association of Timorese Democrats-Social Democrat Party (ASDT-PSD) coalition was coming third with 16.7 percent, followed by the Democrat Party (PD) with 11.6 percent.

Sixty-five seats in Dili’s one-chamber Parliament are up for grabs, as well as the government and the post of prime minister. According to the predictions of many analysts, no formation will win an absolute majority and the new government will be formed on the basis of political negotiations.

The representative of the UN Sectretary-General, Finn Reske-Nielsen, declared that the election was “free and fair”, on the basis of indications given by international observers, who said the voting unfolded in a “peaceful and orderly” manner.

The hope is that the new government will manage to pull the country out of the serious political, social and economic crises overwhelming it. East Timor is Asia’s youngest and poorest nation: nearly half its workforce is unemployed, around 60 per cent of children aged under five are malnourished, and the average income is below one dollar a day.

• TIMOR
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