DILI, 05 june 2023 (TATOLI) – Charismatic Leader and Former Prime Minister, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão’s National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction Party (CNRT) won Timor-Leste’s parliamentary elections.
The official result of the Parliamentary Election was announced by the President of the Court of Appeal, Deolindo dos Santos, at the Court of Appeal, in Dili, today.
The result showed that Gusmão was in a strong position to form a coalition government after his CNRT won the most votes in a 21-may election with many expecting him to be the Prime Minister.
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, except for 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.
On friday (30/05), the Democratic Party (PD) and the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) began initial meetings for the formation of the IX Constitutional Government.
“I would like to take this opportunity to present our intention to form the IX Constitutional Government with the CNRT,” the General Secretary of the Democratic Party, António da Conceição ‘Kalohan’ said at the meeting.
Kalohan stressed that both CNRT and PD have almost similar programs, saying that therefore there would be no problem for the two parties to form a coalition government.
At the same place, General Secretary of CNRT, Francisco Kalbuadi Lay said both parties will negotiate the formation of the IX Constitutional Government after the official announcement of the results of the parliamentary elections by the Court of Appeal.
Kalbuadi said that CNRT will be invited by the President of the Republic to form a coalition government after the announcement of the election result.
Related News:https://en.tatoli.tl/2023/06/05/cnrt-and-pd-officially-agree-to-form-coalition-government/21/
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges
