DILI, 06 june 2023 (TATOLI) – The National Congress Party for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), of the former Prime Minister Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão, filed a lawsuit related to the Parliamentary Elections, contesting the irregularities committed during the election, including the lack of ballot papers, improper vote counting and data entry, and so on.
According to CNRT spokesperson, Tomás Cabral, CNRT has identified more than 70 irregularities committed in the parliamentary elections.
“We have identified irregularities in more than 70 polling centers of the 21-may election. So, we are going to file a lawsuit in order to restore the credibility of STAE. We will submit the documents for the lawsuit to the Public Prosecutor,” Cabral told reporters in a press conference, held in Dili, today.
He said an investigation into the irregularities must be carried out in order to hold the perpetrators accountable for their actions: “There may have been electoral fraud in the parliamentary elections.”
Another CNRT spokesperson, Carmelita Caetano Moniz, insisted that CNRT votes from several polling centers were distributed to other political parties.
“For example, according to an electoral minute signed by the Presiding Officer of the Juvenil Voting Center in Taibessi, Dili, which we received, CNRT has a total of 463 votes. But in fact, according to the electoral minutes of STAE, these votes were attributed to FRETILIN,” she said.
Despite filing the lawsuit, Cabral said CNRT accepted the final result of the elections announced by the Court of Appeal on monday (05/06).
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.
Seventeen political parties contested the 21 May parliamentary elections, making Timor-Leste one of the most democratic nations in the Southeast Asian region.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Nelia Borges
