DILI, 05 june 2023 (TATOLI) – The Former Prime Minister, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão’s party, the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), and the Democratic Party (PD) have officially agreed to form a coalition government.
The agreement was announced in a meeting between CNRT Secretary-General Francisco Kalbuadi Lay and his DP counterpart, António da Conceição ‘Kalohan’, at the DP headquarters, in Dili, today.
During the meeting, Kalbuadi revealed that Gusmão will be the next Prime Minister of the IX Constitutional Government.
Kalbuadi said the meeting was to reaffirm CNRT’s commitment to form a coalition government with the Democratic Party: “We hand over our official letter, signed by Gusmão, to DP for the formation of the next government.”
“Today, we have officially confirmed our commitment that we are ready to go with our coalition. This means that the mission and intentions of this coalition are clear because people have shown their love for these two parties. There is no doubt that we are strong enough with 37 seats in parliament and we are ready to move forward,” he said.
Kalbuadi informed that the President of the Republic will invite the CNRT, as the party with the most votes, to form the coalition government: “Of course, we will inform the Head of State that we are ready to form a coalition government with PD”.
He added that the top leaders of both parties will negotiate the formation of the coalition government.
So, the next coalition government will be formed with 37 seats, consisting of 31 seats of CNRT and 6 of PD.
At the same place, Kalohan said that both political parties are committed to making changes to improve the lives of the Timorese people.
“It is a reaffirmation of the commitment of both political parties to form a coalition. And we truly appreciate the commitment of CNRT to form a coalition government with DP,” Kalohan said.
According to the official announcement of the result of the parliamentary election of the Court of Appeal with all electoral minutes verified, the CNRT of charismatic leader Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão won 41.6% of the vote – a 16-point lead over the ruling FRETILIN party of former Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri that secured 25.8%. Meanwhile, the PLP of current Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak received only 5.9% of the vote and KHUNTO secured 7.5% of the vote.
The results showed a significant increase in CNRT seats from 21 to 31, allowing Gusmão’s CNRT to form a coalition. On the other hand, both FRETILIN and PLP lost four seats each, with FRETILIN down from its current 23 seats to 19, and PLP down from its current eight seats to four, with the exception of KHUNTO, which is the only party in the current government to retain its five seats.
Meanwhile, the Democratic Party (PD), one of the opposition parties that has expressed interest in forming a coalition government with Gusmão’s CNRT, won 9.3 percent of the vote, securing six seats, up from five seats in the 2017 parliamentary elections.
Despite having many supporters, the Green Party, and the Unity Party for Democratic Development (PUDD) received only 3.6 percent and 3.1 percent of the votes respectively, making both parties fail to pass the electoral threshold of 4% to secure any seats. Besides, the other 11 political parties received only less than one percent of the votes.
Timor-Leste registered a high turnout in the 2023 parliamentary elections with 79.28% of the 890,145 registered voters participating in the elections.
Seventeen political parties contested the 21 May parliamentary elections, making Timor-Leste one of the most democratic nations in the Southeast Asian region.
Related News:https://en.tatoli.tl/2023/05/31/pd-and-cnrt-begin-the-initial-meeting-to-form-a-coalition-government/11/
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges
