East Timor To Become Millennium's First New Nation
Peaceful Elections Favour Gusmao -
East Timor is set to become the first country to come into existence in the new millennium when the United Nations Transitional Administration (UNTAET) hands over authority on 20 May to a democratically elected government.
With virtually all ballots in East Timor's first-ever presidential elections counted today, preliminary results show
independence leader Xanana Gusmão holding an overwhelming lead, United Nations electoral officials announced today.
East Timor, UN reporter Richard Walker says: "Twelve of East Timor's 13 districts have announced the Walker: results of their ballots. In 11 of these 12, Xanana Gusmao has polled considerably more votes than his opponent Francisco Xavier Do Amaral. In 9 of the 12 district results known so far, Xanana has polled over 80%. The remaining result, from the district of Baucau, and the overall result of the election will be announced at noon, local time, on Wednesday."
UN Transitional Administration's (UNTAET) chief electoral official, Carlos Valenzuela, cautioned that despite the late
stage of the counting process, no official statement has been made on the outcome of the election.
Final national results will be announced on Wednesday, and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) Board of
Commissioners - a majority of whom are East Timorese - will certify the official results on Sunday, 21 April. So far,
Mr. Gusmão has won 11 districts and a total of 267,615 votes while Legislative Assembly Vice President Francisco Xavier
do Amaral has captured one district and a total of 57,536 votes.
After all the ballots were accounted for during the first phase of the counting process, the official number of total
votes was determined to be 378,538 - or 86.2 per cent of the estimated voter population.
Of that total, 336,955 votes have been counted, according to UNTAET.
The last remaining district, Baucau, was expected to be finished counting by midnight.
The number of invalid votes in the 12 counted districts was 11,804, compared to 325,151 valid votes. Party and candidate
agents and independent electoral observers have been present at all 13 counting centres.
In the case of four ballot boxes found with broken seals yesterday, the IEC Board considered related evidence and
determined that there had been no tampering. Initial reports suggested the seals had inadvertently broken during
transport.