Timor-Leste’s presidential election looks to have produced a strong victory for Fretilin’s serial candidate, Francisco ‘Lu-Olo’ Guterres. While results remains unofficial, based on a largely complete tally, Lu-Olo was looking to have around 57 per cent of the total vote for the mostly ceremonial role of president. This means that Lu-Olo will comfortably surpass the […]
Tag Archives: Fretilin
Last weekend my old friend, Timorese ‘boss’ in the days of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) and the current Secretary of State for Energy Policy (SEPE), Avelino Maria Coelho da Silva, invited me to his traditional land outside of Ossu on the southern slopes of the great mountain range that runs […]
On Sunday evening, 15 July 2012, a congress of CNRT party members in Dili voted to go into an alliance with the Democratic Party and Frenti Mudanca to form a new alliance to make up Timor-Lestes Fifth Constitutional Government. In response, members of Fretilin rioted, burning more than 50 cars and stoning UN police sent […]
(unknown) 1937 – 6 March 2012. East Timor’s first president, for just 9 days ahead of Indonesia’s invasion in 1975, Francisco Xavier do Amaral, has died in Dili at the age of 74 of complications caused by advanced cancer. Do Amaral, affectionately known in East Timor as ‘Grandfather’, was born in Turiscai in the Mambai-speaking […]