Yesterday in East Timor, partial preliminary results of the presidential elections held on April 9, in which over half a million citizens took part, became known. The final result will be announced next week. Eight candidates ran for the presidency. The favorites in the presidential race were the current Prime Minister, Nobel Peace Prize winner, 57-year-old Jose Ramos Horta, and the Democratic Party candidate, one of the leaders of the resistance to the Indonesian occupation, 52-year-old Fernando “Lasama” de Araujo. Apparently, no candidate receives an absolute majority of votes, and then the country faces a second round of elections in May. The current president, Xanana Gusmão, refused to stand as a candidate and, regardless of who comes to power, intends to take the post of prime minister. The territory of present-day East Timor was a colony of Portugal for several centuries; in 1975, Indonesia took control of it as a separate province. In 1999, Jakarta was forced to transfer East Timor to the temporary control of the UN, which granted it independence in May 2002.
