With the second round of the East Timor presidential election set for 8 May, scandalous allegations are flying on both sides. On Saturday, the Fretilin party, whose candidate is resistance veteran Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres, issued a press release accusing Nobel Peace Prize winner and incumbent Prime Minister, Jose Ramos Horta, of associating with armed groups.
"How can a future president associate himself with armed groups operating outside the law?” asks Fretilin in the latest volley of salvos being fired as the campaign to decide the Presidency continues.
Earlier, the Democratic Party candidate Fernando Lasama de Araujo, threw his support behind Ramos Horta and accused the Fretilin party of intimidating voters and buying voting cards. Lasama declared that "Fretilin have demonstrated a total disregard for the people of our country, thinking that they can buy people's votes as if it was a possession. A vote is more than that, it is a civil right and is not for sale."
Lasama obtained 19% of the vote in the first round on 9 April. If Ramos Horta maintains his 22% support, he will go into the second round with a notional 41% making him almost unbeatable unless Fretilin can rally considerably more support than the 28% that Lu Olo obtained in the first round.
The Timorese Social Democratic Association (ASDT) candidate, Francisco Xavier do Amaral, who got just over 14% in the April vote, is reported to have stated that a vote for Fretilin is "suicide". It is almost certain that ASDT followers will not vote for the Fretilin candidate.
It is likely too that the Social Democratic Party (PSD) candidate Lucia Lobato, who obtained 9% of the first round vote, will also call on her party's supporters to elect Ramos Horta in May. Ms. Lobato is a relative of the now disgraced former Fretilin Interior Minister, Rogerio Lobato, who was sentenced to seven and a half years prison by the Dili District Court in March for illegal weapons distribution and manslaughter charges. Mr. Lobato has appealed the court's decision.
Fretilin, which has been in power since 2002, will have to make up a lot of ground over the next week to regain political ascendency in East Timor and have a chance of winning the Presidency.
The young nation was shaken by a violent rebellion in 2006 that left 37 dead and tens of thousands of internal refugees.
