Timor - Elections 2012
Timor-Leste is a multiparty parliamentary republic. President Taur Matan Ruak is head of state following free and fair presidential elections on March 17 and April 16. Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmao headed a three-party coalition government formed following free and fair parliamentary elections on July 7.
National security forces reported to civilian authorities, but there were some problems with discipline and accountability. Principal human rights problems included police use of excessive force during arrest and abuse of authority, arbitrary arrest and detention, and an inefficient and understaffed judiciary system that deprived citizens of due process and an expeditious and fair trial. Other human rights problems included poor prison conditions, warrantless search and arrest, uneven access to civil and criminal justice, corruption, gender-based violence, and violence against children including sexual assault. The government took concrete steps to prosecute members of the security services who used excessive force or inappropriately treated detainees. However, public perceptions of impunity persisted.
A change to the electoral law in 2011 required voters to cast their ballots in their places of registration, rather than at any voting center as had been permitted in the 2007 elections. Some NGOs criticized this requirement as inhibiting the ability of voters registered outside their places of residence to participate in the election.
East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta conceded defeat on 19 March 2012 in his bid to win a second term in office. With more than 70 percent of the ballots counted, results show Francisco Guterres, from the main opposition Fretilin party, ahead with about 28 percent of the vote. He was followed by former military chief Jose Maria de Vasconcelos with 25 percent. They went go on to a run-off election in mid-April. Former independence leader Taur Matan Ruak won East Timor’s presidential election 2012. Taur Matan Ruak, Commander of the Armed Forces, was a guerrilla colleague of Gusmao's during the Indonesian occupation. He was a central player in the 2006 crisis and was recommended for prosecution by the UN Commission of Inquiry. Nevertheless, he is seen and occasionally revered as a founder of the nation due to his long service in the military resistance. Ruak won the presidential runoff with 61 percent of the vote to 39 percent for Francisco Guterres, another independence leader known as “Lu Olo.” Guterres placed slightly ahead of Ruak in the March 2012 first round of the presidential election.
The party of East Timor's prime minister won the 07 July 2012 parliamentary elections — but without an overall majority. With all the ballots counted, the National Council of Timorese Resistance party, led by former rebel leader and current prime minister Xanana Gusmao, had just over 36 percent of the vote. Gusmao's National Congress for the Reconstruction of Timor-Leste (CNRT) came in first with 30 seats, winning five more than the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (FRETILIN). The CNRT pledged to seek foreign loans to build infrastructure while the FRETILIN opposed resorting to loans. The CNRT subsequently formed a coalition government with the Democratic Party (eight seats) and the National Reconstruction Front of Timor-Leste (FRENTL- Mudança, a splinter of the FRETILIN, which took two seats).
The results were expected to set up a prolonged period of negotiations to form a coalition government. The United Nations praised the polls for being peaceful and orderly. The UN had said that it will withdraw its troops if the parliamentary polls went smoothly, following peaceful presidential elections in April 2012.
Women held 25 of the 65 seats in parliament, as well as two senior ministerial positions--finance and social solidarity--four vice-minister positions, and four secretary of state positions. The electoral law includes a provision requiring that women make up at least one-third of the candidates on each political party’s list for parliamentary elections. The country’s small ethnic minority groups were well integrated into society. The number of members of these groups in parliament and other government positions was uncertain as self-identification of ethnicity was not a common practice.
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