September 6, 2001
The party that led East Timor's 24-year struggle for independence from Indonesia has won the fledgling nation's first democratic elections, U.N. officials said Thursday. The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor garnered 57 percent of the vote and secured 55 seats in an 88-member assembly that will write East Timor's first constitution and steer the territory to independence next year, said Carlos Valenzuela, the chief U.N. electoral officer.
``Emotionally it was a very touching election, as it heals the wounds of 1999 and the effects of the popular consultation. This makes the election a historic success,'' Valenzuela said. He was referring to the campaign of killing, looting and destruction launched by Indonesian forces and their militia proxies after the results of a U.N.-sponsored referendum on Aug. 30, 1999, were announced. In the plebiscite, four-fifths of the electorate voted to secede from Indonesia, which had ruled East Timor since invading the former Portuguese colony in 1975.
The Revolutionary Front's win, which had been widely expected, gives it a clear mandate to form the new administration upon independence. However, the result leaves the party -- known here as Fretilin -- short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass its draft constitution without support from other parties.
Trailing Fretilin was the Democratic Party, with 9 percent and seven seats in the legislature. In third place was the Social Democratic Party with 8 percent and six seats. The Timorese Social Democratic Association also won six seats. The conservative Timorese Democratic Union, which fought a brief civil war against Fretilin before the Indonesian invasion, garnered only two seats.
``The result reflects the will of the people, and everybody is happy. I think it is a good signal that peace is going to be consolidated,'' Fretilin leader Mari Alkateri said.
The elections on Aug. 30 were a key step in preparing East Timor for independence after centuries of Portuguese colonial rule, more than two decades of Indonesian occupation, and two years of transitional U.N. government. Sergio Vieira de Mello, the world body's chief administrator, congratulated the parties and candidates and described the ballot as a ``compelling election process of which many democratic countries could be jealous.''
Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri, who had in the past refused to talk with representatives of the fledgling nation and only recently recognized East Timor's right to secede, invited leaders of the territory and U.N. administrators to meet next week. ``I welcome this invitation and believe we can now launch the high-level consultations that have been stalled for some time,'' said de Mello. ``This augurs very well for the future relations between (East Timor) and the new government in Jakarta.''
De Mello said the results would be officially certified Monday. The new assembly, which will formally convene on Sept. 15, will have three months to adopt a new national charter.
The United Nations will gradually turn over the day-to-day running of the administration to a new government headed by a chief minister.
Fretilin, which was established in 1974, played a key role in East Timor's struggle for independence from Indonesia. Leaders of the party had predicted that they would win about 85 percent of the votes cast.
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