East Timor’s Ramos-Horta takes commanding lead in presidential vote

By Kate Lamb and Nelson Da Cruz

DILI (Reuters) -East Timor independence leader and Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta is set to be the country’s next president, with the final vote count showing he has secured 62% of the vote, according to data from the country’s elections agency.

Timorese went to the polls in the half-island nation of 1.3 million people on Tuesday, choosing between Ramos-Horta and ex-guerrilla fighter President Francisco “Lu Olo” Guterres.

With 100% of the votes counted, Ramos-Horta had a strong lead with 62.09% of the votes, while Lu Olo had 37.91%, according to data from the election administration agency.

Ramos-Horta, 72, is one of East Timor’s best known political figures and previously served as foreign minister, prime minister and then the country’s second president, from 2007 to 2012.

He was a co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in 1996 for his efforts to bring a peaceful resolution to a guerrilla war in East Timor against Indonesia’s occupation of the former Portuguese colony.

In the first round of the election in April, he narrowly missed securing an outright majority. An Australian academic calculated that he needed just 30,000 additional votes to secure victory in Tuesday’s second round.

Speaking after voting near his home in the capital of Dili, Ramos-Horta said he was “very confident” he would win but would await the final results.

After years of political tensions between major parties, this election has been widely viewed as crucial to stability. Ramos-Horta has suggested he may use presidential powers to dissolve parliament and bring forward a general election scheduled for next year.

East Timor’s first president, Xanana Gusmao, is backing Ramos-Horta in this election and has described the current government as “constitutionally illegitimate”.

Lu Olo, the incumbent, refused to swear in several ministers from Gusmao’s political party on the grounds they were facing legal investigations, including for alleged corruption.

The next president will be sworn in on May 20, the 20th anniversary of East Timor’s restoration of independence.

(Reporting by Kate Lamb in Sydney and Nelson Da Cruz in Dili; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)