DILI (TOP) – Political parties are now busy consolidating in various parts of Timor-Leste to welcome the parliamentary elections in May that are likely to return the independence hero to power despite frustration in the young democracy with a lack of economic progress and warnings that the country is sinking into a fiscal cliff.
It is estimated that there will be more than 20 political parties that will compete in this parliamentary election.
President of the Republic, José Ramos-Horta has announced the legislative elections in Timor-Leste will take place on Sunday 21 May 2023, and the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction party led by the Commander in Chief of FALINTIL, Kay Rala Xanana Gusmão in several party consolidation activity asked his followers to work harder in order to achieve 33 seats in the national parliament in the upcoming legislative elections.
According to provisional data from the National Election Commission, there are around 20 more political parties that will compete in this parliamentary election.
In early January, Xanana invited all of his party coordinators from 12 municipalities to go to open a regional consolidation in Oe-Kusi Ambeno.
In his speech, Xanana asked his party structures, from the national level to the village level, to work harder to get the target of 33 seats in the parliamentary elections in May.
Xanana also informed his militants and sympathizers of the CNRT party that if the CNRT won with a majority, he would accept people's demands to return to his position as prime minister for the next five-year period.
"If we win absolutely and you ask me to go there to fix what is not good, I will be ready and willing to accept your demands," said Xanana when opening the regional consolidation of the CNRT party in the Oe-Kusi Ambeno enclave area on Sunday, January 14 2023.
"To correct the violations that have occurred we must win with an absolute majority," said Xanana.
Xanana, who is known as a hero for Timor-Leste's independence, explained that the reason the CNRT party left the Majority Alliance for Change (AMP) was because the Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak, had never heard or received advice from the CNRT about a good government system. And another reason is suspected that PM Taur is conspiring with the former President of the Republic, Francisco Guterres Lú Olo not to give inauguration to 9 cabinet members from the CNRT party.
"Therefore, it is better for us to leave the alliance than to stay there to support what has gone wrong and not benefit the people," Xanana explained.
The Majority Alliance for Change was formed by three political parties, namely CNRT, PLP, and the KHUNTO party before the 2018 elections.
During the consolidation period of his party, which began since June 2022 until now, Xanana appealed to the people that if they still give confidence him the parliamentarian election, in the first year he will return to repair the democratic institutions that have been destroyed by President Lú Olo and the following year will focus on decentralization and the economy to improve the country's economic situation which has suffered great disrepair in the last five years.
Xanana has carried out charitable actions from 2020 to 2022, and since early 2023 he has focused on consolidating his party to pick up parliamentary elections, while the FRETILIN party under the leadership of Secretary General Mari Bim Amude Alkatiri has just started charitable actions which have received negative comments because there is a tendency purchasing votes.
Previously, Alkatiri had criticized Xanana's charitable actions as an action to buy votes, but now Alkatiri with full FRETILIN party attributes went to do the same thing Xanana had done.
The three political parties currently in government namely PLP, KHUNTO and FRETILIN will go in a separate ways in this election, and after the election will sit together to defend their agreement or will split.
The CNRT party also does not want to form a coalition or alliance with any party, the CNRT is confident that it will take its own path to pick up this election, but there is a high possibility that it will form a coalition with a political party if it does not win with an absolute majority.
Political stability is particularly crucial for the country, which officially gained independence only 15 years ago, because it is facing a financial time bomb.
Oil revenues, which finance more than 90 percent of government spending, are rapidly dwindling and the country’s $16 billion sovereign wealth fund could be empty within 10 years with the government’s annual withdrawals exceeding its investment returns, according to La’o Hamutuk, an East Timorese research institute.
Timor-Leste, a former Portuguese colony, voted overwhelmingly in 1999 to end 24 years of brutal Indonesian occupation. Indonesia’s military and pro-Indonesian militias responded to the independence referendum with scorched earth attacks that devastated the East Timorese half of the island of Timor.
Today, the country of 1.3 million people, still faces poverty with many people lacking clean water and sanitation. Unemployment is high and young people are increasingly looking abroad for work. The top and perennial concern of voters in the IRI survey was the poor condition of roads. They also believed government corruption was worsening.
“Here in Dili it is very difficult to find jobs,” said Agustinho Soares, who like other young Timorese hopes he can find work in South Korea.
To develop the economy, leaders have focused on big ticket infrastructure projects such as airports, a highway and a special economic zone funded from the dwindling $16 billion Timor-Leste Petroleum Fund. It was established in 2005 from revenues from the now almost-dry Bayu-Undan oil field.
Campaign activities for parliamentary elections in Timor-Leste will take place from 9 April to 18 May, and the election will be on 21 May 2023.
