East timor: In Asia's newest democracy, Xanana Gusmao is likely to take office again as prime minister after his opposition party won Sunday's parliamentary elections in East Timor.
The National Congress of the Reconstruction of East Timor, or CNRT, received 41 percent of the vote and gained 31 seats out of 65 in the National Parliament, according to the final vote count announced by the National Elections Commission on Tuesday.
With 25% of the vote and 19 seats, the ruling Fretilin, or Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, came into power. It pledged to accept the results of the election. The Khunto Party, which is based in rural areas, received five seats, the Democratic Party six, and the People's Liberation Party four.
There were 17 parties that ran. They had to have at least one woman in every third position on their party list, and seats were only given to candidates with a 4 percent electoral threshold.
Before the vote, no parties formed coalitions, leaving Gusmao, the chair of CNRT, and Mari Alkatiri, the leader of the Fretilin party and another key figure from the resistance era, to decide who will lead the government.
Years of political inaction have been attributed to a feud between Fretilin and CNRT. Taur Matan Ruak, the prime minister, resigned in 2020 after the government repeatedly failed to pass a budget due to tensions between the two biggest parties that have existed since 2018.
But he consented to remain and manage the coronavirus pandemic until a new government was established. Without an annual budget, his government has relied on monthly infusions from the Petroleum Fund, a sovereign fund.
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Currently, Fretilin, the PLP he leads, and the Khunto party make up his ruling coalition.
After a UN-sponsored referendum in 1999, the former Portuguese colony became independent after being occupied by Indonesia for a period of 25 years. In retaliation, Indonesia's military launched scorched-earth attacks that completely destroyed the portion of Timor that belonged to East Timor.
East Timor's transition to democracy has been challenging; the nation still struggles with the effects of its bloody independence war and bitter factional politics, which have occasionally descended into violence. Leaders also must contend with extreme poverty, unemployment, and corruption. Its economy is dependent on declining revenues from offshore oil.
East Timor received observer status from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year before joining the group as its eleventh member. The UN estimates that 42 out of every 1,000 babies in East Timor die before their fifth birthday due to malnutrition, and that nearly half of the country's population lives below the extreme poverty line of $1.90 per day.