Laureate of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996 and leader of East Timor’s independence, won two decades ago, jurist José Ramos-Horta, 72, won the Timorese presidential elections this Wednesday (20). He won 62% of the vote, against 38% for the current president, Francisco Guterres, popularly known as Lu Olo.
This will be the second time that Ramos-Horta has held the presidency of the country of 1.3 million inhabitants, which, alongside Brazil and seven other nations, is part of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP). He was in the post from 2007 to 2012 and was previously also Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of East Timor.
The jurist, who lived in exile for decades, was retired, but says he felt compelled to return to political life because he understood that Lu Olo had exceeded his powers by refusing to swear in six ministers after the last parliamentary elections, held in 2018. The country, however, continues with high levels of democracy in the main international institutes that monitor the subject.
Born in Dili, the capital, in 1949, to an East Timorese mother and a Portuguese father, who had been deported by Portugal’s authoritarian government after opposing the dictatorship of António Salazar (1933-1974), Ramos-Horta lived for decades as a spokesman. exiled from East Timorese guerrillas fighting the occupation of neighboring Indonesia.
East Timor has lived more than four centuries under the yoke of other nations. First, it was a colony of Portugal — which made the Portuguese language one of the languages of the country, although increasingly rare among the population — until 1975 and, subsequently, it witnessed 24 years of Indonesian domination. The country became officially independent only in 2002, after being administered by a United Nations mission.
It was then that the nation joined the CPLP, being the 8th country to integrate the Lusophone bloc created in 1996. Prohibited during the Indonesian occupation, a time that left thousands of dead, Portuguese was later placed as an official language, alongside Tetum. . The country has more than 30 local dialects. The language, however, has become increasingly rare among the new generations.
Ramos-Horta was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize alongside Bishop Carlos Belo in 1996 for his work in the search for a peaceful solution to the conflict in the country. As president, he was the target of an assassination attempt orchestrated by a group of military rebels. He was shot three times, two in the back and another in the stomach, and was even put into an induced coma, but later ended his term.
During the elections, the new East Timorese president said the country could expect a “political earthquake” as, if elected, he would seek to dissolve Parliament and call for early general elections in an attempt to restore legitimacy to the national legislature and ease the political impasse in course.
In addition to political instability, Ramos-Horta will have as one of his main challenges the diversification of the local economy. East Timor essentially depends on offshore oil and gas reserves, which represent around 90% of GDP. The government has been criticized for failing to capitalize on natural resource revenue to finance economic and social development and diversify the economy. About 40% of the population is below the poverty line.
The new president will be sworn in a month from now, on 20 May, on the 20th anniversary of the restoration of East Timor’s independence.
