Structure of Goverment and Electoral System

The Four Powers of the State

Timor-Leste is a constitutional Republic with four sovereign institutions: the Presidency, the Parliament, the Government (executive) and the Judiciary. Both President and the parliament are elected directly by the people through a general election every five years. The Prime Minister is the head of Government and presides over the Cabinet. The President is head of State, but a semi-symbolic figure, having a limited number of powers to act as a check and balance on executive power. The President has a veto over legislation that can be overridden by an absolute majority of the parliament or by two thirds of those present, depending on the subject matter. The President also has a number of appointment powers, the most important of which are subject to the wish of the parliamentary majority or the Prime Minister (PM). The PM is nominated by the political party or alliance of parties with the parliamentary majority and appointed by the President. The Cabinet is designated by the PM and appointed by the President. The President also has the power to declare a state of emergency with the authorisation of parliament. Parliament has the power to take a vote of no confidence in the government and to dismiss the Cabinet.

Local Administrative Divisions

The country is divided into 13 districts, 65 sub-districts, and 442 sucos (group of villages).

The Coming Elections

The coming presidential and parliamentary elections will be the first national elections held since independence on 20 May 2002. By law they have to be held separately.

The Presidential elections will be held on April 9, 2007, and if no candidate wins more than 50% of the vote, a second round between the top two candidates will be held on May 9. The Presidential campaign period is 15 days, beginning 23 March and ending 6 April, followed by a two day silence period.

The date for the parliamentary elections has not been set yet. The President has the power to set it, and he said he will do so after the Presidential elections. An 80 day period must follow his announcement, so that the earliest they could be held is the end of June 2007. The electoral system is proportional representation, from one national constituency. Only registered political parties or alliance may present candidate lists, although candidates on a party’s list do not have to belong to that party. This gives some scope for independent candidates to stand, as long as they can join onto a party’s list. All lists must contain one woman every group of four candidates, a new requirement. In the current parliament, women won 22 of the 88 seats without a mandatory quota in place. The parliament is unicameral.

There is a 3% threshold in place for the first time, so that a party may not take up any seats unless it wins at least 3% of the vote. If this threshold had applied to the 2001 elections, eight of the parties currently in parliament would not have won any seats. The d’Hondt highest average formula is used for parliamentary seat allocation. The parliamentary campaign period is 30 days long, followed by a two day silence period. In the new parliament floor-crossing will not be allowed: if any deputy wishes to leave their party, they must resign their seat and the vacancy will be filled by the next candidate on their party’s list.

Previous Elections

August 1999: the referendum on independence from Indonesia, conducted by the UN. 78% of the population voted in favour. Following a period of very severe violence, the UN took over the administration of the country, until independence.

September 2001: elections for a constituent assembly were held under UN supervision. 88 seats were elected, 55 going to FRETILIN, 19 to the three larger opposition parties (PD, PSD and ASDT), and the remainder to small parties and one independent candidate. Under the terms of the new Constitution, the constituent assembly members automatically became members of the first parliament after independence. In the coming parliamentary elections, 65 deputies will be elected and 25 reserves (suplentes).

April 2002: elections for the president were held under UN supervision. Two candidates stood, Xanana Gusmão and Xavier do Amaral. Gusmão won 82% of the vote.

December 2004 – September 2005: suco elections. These local elections were for village and hamlet chiefs.

The Presidential Election

Candidacy Requirements

Candidates must be Timorese citizens by birth, and at least 35 years old. They need 5000 citizen signatures from across the country to support their candidacy, at least 100 from every one of the 13 districts.

Candidates may withdraw until 6 April, but the ballot printing process begins around two weeks before election day so withdrawal may be confusing for voters in practice.

Candidates are not officially proposed by political parties, although the law does not prohibit them from being party members or from being supported by their parties. The current candidates are all party leaders and/or parliamentary deputies for a party, except for Ramos Horta.

The 8 Candidates for the Presidential Elections

In the order that they will appear on the ballot paper, as determined by the STAE lottery:

1. Lu-Olo - Francisco Guterres

A FRETILIN leader, he was elected chairperson of the Constituent Assembly in 2001, and then became Speaker of the new Parliament in 2002, an office which he continued to hold until the start of the campaign.

2. Avelino Coelho da Silva

Leader of the Timorese Socialist Party PST, which split from FRETILIN in the mid-1990s. This party has one seat in the National Assembly.

3. Xavier do Amaral

Leader of ASDT (Timorese Association of Social Democracy), which was one of the founder organizations of FRETILIN in the mid-70s, and then subsequently re-emerged as an opposition party. They have six seats in the National Assembly. Do Amaral was a founder member of FRETILIN, and chosen as the first president after the unilateral declaration of independence in 1975. However, he left the party a few years later due to ideological differences. He ran against Xanana Gusmão in the 2002 presidential elections and obtained 17% of the vote.

4. Manuel Tilman

Leader of KOTA political party (the Association of Timorese Heroes, also known as Sons of the Mountain Warriors), and currently one of two KOTA deputies in the National Assembly. The party seeks to revindicate traditional Timorese culture.

5. Lucia Lobato

A deputy for the PSD, one of the larger opposition parties that has six seats in the N.A. Mario Carrascalão is the head of the PSD, but the party nominated a woman as its candidate.

6. José Ramos Horta

Without political party affiliation, Ramos Horta was a member of FRETILIN for many years and its leading spokesman in exile, until he left the party in the late 1980s, and became spokesman for the more broadly based CNRT. He won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996, and was named as Foreign Minister in the first government after independence. He became Prime Minister after Mari Alkatiri resigned as PM during the 2006 crisis, but suspended his mandate once the campaign began.

7. João Carrascalão

Leader of the UDT (Timorese Democratic Union), one of the older opposition parties, that won two deputy seats in the 2001 elections. This party was originally in favour of autonomy within Portugal in 1974/5 and was anti-communist; they fought and lost a bitter civil war with FRETILIN in August 1975.

8. Fernando Lasama de Araujo

Leader of the PD (Democratic Party), the largest of the opposition parties with seven seats in the National Assembly. Lasama spent a number of years in Indonesian prison, sharing a prison wing with Gusmão.

Political Parties

Parties currently represented in the National Assembly (in descending order of their number of seats)

FRETILIN – Revolutionary Front for Independent Timor-Leste – 55 seats

PD – Democratic Party – 7 seats

PSD – Social Democratic Party – 6 seats

ASDT – Timorese Association of Social Democracy – 6 seats

PNT – Timorese Nationalist Party – 2 seats

PPT – Timorese Peoples Party – 2 seats

UDT – Timorese Democratic Union – 2 seats

PDC – Christian Democrat Party – 2 seats

KOTA – Association of Timorese Heroes – 2 seats

PDCT – Christian Democratic Party of Timor – 1 seat

PST – Timorese Socialist Party – 1 seat

PL – Liberal Party – 1 seat.

New parties formed and registered before these elections:

PR – Republican Party

Millennium Democratic Party

PDRT – Democratic Republican Party of Timor

UNDERTIM – Party of National Democratic Unity of the Timorese Resistance.

The President has some significant autonomous appointment powers, including that of the Prosecutor-General and President of the Supreme Court of Justice. It is also the President’s function to set the date of elections, convene extraordinary sessions of parliament, and dissolve the parliament in case of a serious institutional crisis, having consulted with the Council of State and the Council of Defence and Security.

See results tables below.

Presidential Elections, April 2002