EAST TIMOR: Horta says he will suffer an "electoral demise" if he loses upcoming elections as East Timor faces run-off elections

East Timor faces a second round run-off of its presidential elections as foreign observers say ballot rigging cases and signs of intimidation were detected in several voting posts. East Timor may face a second round of presidential elections, an election commission official said on Wednesday (April 11) as foreign observers said they found clues of intimidation on voters and ballot rigging. "We were in the 73 electoral events, I observed intimidation problems during the campaign in four places and that means the intimidations normally is in the form of confrontations between supporters of different candidates," said chief observer Javier Pomez Ruiz of the European Union Election Observation Mission. "At the end of the day when the counting gets started, people with free access cards were actually linked to the ruling party or the current administration. And I found it weird because this is a kind of situation that could lend itself to be interpreted as intimidation. I hope that can be sorted out for the next electoral round," observer Anna Gomes added. Jose' Ramos-Horta, former guerrilla fighter, Fretilin Party candidate Francisco Guterres and the Democratic Party's Fernando de Araujo were ahead in the capital Dili, where a fifth of East Timor's one million people live, according to preliminary figures. Analysts say the ruling Fretilin Party may not be ready to forfeit their control and are concerned of post-election violence if the party loses. Supporters of rival candidates clashed during campaigning last week, injuring more than 30 people and prompting international troops to fire tear gas and warning shots. This year's campaigns focused on how to reunite East Timorese, split by a regional divide that erupted into bloodshed last May after the sacking of 600 mutinous troops from the western region. With the three leading candidates neck-to-neck, if no one wins more than half the vote, a run-off will be held, a scenario some analysts see as likely. "In the second round I predict they will be between Ramos Horta and Lu Olo (Francisco Guterres) or Ramos Horta and La Sama (Fernando de Araujo), Pinto predicted. Election commission spokesman Martinho Gusmao told reporters Ramos-Horta was leading in Dili with about 30 percent of the vote, followed by De Araujo with around 25 percent and Guterres with about 20 percent. "With this percentage there is possibility for second round, so far," he added. Eight candidates contested the vote, including Ramos-Horta, a Nobel peace prize winner who spearheaded an overseas campaign for independence from Indonesia. "As the counting continues and probably we will have the final result by the end of the day. Although it will not be official," Horta said in a news conference on Wednesday. Ramos-Horta added that he would accept the results and not contest them. "If I don't go appear in the top two, I will celebrate my electoral demise. I will not spend energy and time to challenge anyone, whoever wants to challenge go ahead and do it. I will start my vacation," Horta told a news conference. The bespectacled Ramos-Horta accused some "radical elements" in Fretilin, the ruling party machine, of intimidation, but said he would accept the results of the election. Over half a million people were eligible to vote in the election, which outgoing President Xanana Gusmao described as a chance to demonstrate his nation was not a failed state. Xanan Gusmao, an ally of Ramos-Horta, is not running for re-election but plans to seek the more hands-on post of prime minister in a separate parliamentary election later this year. The territory voted in a 1999 referendum for independence from Indonesia, which annexed it after Portugal ended its colonial rule in 1975. It became fully independent in 2002 after a period of U.N. administration. It has rich energy resources but has only begun to tap them and most of the country's one million people remain among the world's poorest. ENDS.

ITN Source | April 11, 2007

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