The return of Ramos-Horta: clear victory in Dili runoff

The 72-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner - former president from 2007 to 2012 - won with 62% of the vote over outgoing head of state Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres. Twenty years after independence, the challenge is to bring East Timor out of the paralysis of political contrasts, while 42% of the population remains below the poverty line. 

Dili (AsiaNews/Agencies) - The historic leader of the battle for independence, Jose Ramos-Horta, has clearly won the runoff for the presidential elections in East Timor, held on February 19. With 67% of the votes - obtained thanks to the support of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) of Xanana Gusmao - he beat the outgoing president Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres, leader of the Revolutionary Front for the Independence of East Timor (Fretilin). Ramos-Horta - 72, a 1996 Nobel Peace Prize winner - had previously served as East Timor's second president from 2007 to 2012, as well as prime minister. He will officially take office on May 20, the 20th anniversary of the independence of Asia's youngest country.

Ramos-Horta's return to the presidency comes in a country marked by deep political instability that so far has not allowed it to undertake any real development. With its 1.3 million inhabitants, the majority of whom are Catholic (in Asia it is second only to the Philippines in terms of the percentage of baptized), East Timor is a country that remains deeply marked by poverty: according to the most recent data from the World Bank, 42% of the population lives below the poverty line, despite the fact that Dili can count on large offshore oil and natural gas deposits.

Many observers expect that once in office Ramos-Horta will dissolve parliament, calling new general elections, but the new president commenting on his victory in the runoff limited himself to saying that he will work to overcome divisions.

"As I have always done in my life," he said, "dialogue, patiently, relentlessly, to find common ground to find solutions to the challenges facing this country. He added that he expects East Timor to be able to become a full-fledged 11th member country of Asean "by this year or next year at the latest" (it currently enjoys observer status ed).

As for the effects of the conflict in Ukraine, he commented that they are beginning to be felt even in East Timor: "The price of oil has gone up, the price of rice has gone up: it is a reality that requires a wise leadership".