The Timor-Leste Court of Appeal certified on Monday the results of the legislative elections on May 21, a ruling that now allows the swearing in of 65 new deputies and, subsequently, the formation of the IX Government.
“After analyzing the records sent by the National Electoral Commission (CNE), the full judges of this Court find nothing likely to affect the regularity of the elections or influence their results,” said the president of the Court of Appeals, Deolindo dos Saints. , who read the sentence in the main room of the judicial body.
“The plenary of the Court of Appeals decides to judge the elections to the National Parliament held on May 21 valid, and to judge the determined results as final,” it says, citing the sentence, signed by the plenary session of four magistrates of the Court of Appeals, currently the organ of the country’s judicial system.
Deolindo dos Santos said that “there was no appeal against the national tabulation carried out by the CNE” and read the names of the 65 deputies elected, based on the list presented when the party’s candidacies were registered.
Deputies may not take office, in which case they will be replaced by another of the names indicated. Each party presented to the Court a total of 65 effective candidates and 25 substitutes.
The final results, identical to those calculated by the CNE, confirm the victory of the National Congress for the Reconstruction of Timor-Leste (CNRT), led by Xanana Gusmão, at the head of the Independent Timor-Leste Revolutionary Front (Fretilin) .
The CNRT ensured broad parliamentary representation, with 31 of the 65 seats in Parliament, 10 more than it currently has, despite not reaching an absolute majority.
The results give Xanana Gusmão’s party 288,289 votes (41.63%), a result higher than that obtained by the three political forces that make up the current Government.
The most probable scenario is that of an alliance between the CNRT and the Democratic Party (PD), in a majority of 37 deputies, both parties having already started negotiations for this process.
The PD became the third political force in number of votes, reversing a downward trend in support for the party, recorded since the 2007 elections, by winning another seat, for a total of six, with 64,517 votes (9, 32%).
In second place was Fretilin, with 178,338 votes (25.75%), which means a loss of four of the current 23 seats.
The results showed a penalty for the parties of the outgoing government, in particular the People’s Liberation Party (PLP), of Timorese Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak, who lost half of the eight seats in Parliament, going from third to fifth political power. . .
Taur Matan Ruak is one of the biggest losers in the May 21 poll, obtaining 40,720 votes (5.88%) when it was the third most voted force in 2017
Mari Alkatiri’s Fretilin was also penalized, with the party that made the executive possible since 2020, registering the worst percentage of support in its history, with a drop of more than eight percentage points compared to the vote it obtained at the beginning of 2018.
Finally, the Kmanek Haburas National Unity of Timor Oan (KHUNTO) managed to ascend to 52,031 votes (7.52%) and maintains the current five seats in Parliament.
The results indicate a leakage of votes for the main parties, with the total number of ballots below the eligibility barrier (4% of the valid votes) representing less than 10% of the total votes.
This value is lower than that of 2017, when it reached 14%, and that of 2012, when it reached more than 23.13%.
Parliament will have five party seats, when it currently has eight. Only two of the 12 remaining competing political forces came close to the 4% barrier of valid votes: the debutant Timorese Greens Party (PVT) and the Democratic Unity and Development Party (PUDD), which had one seat in the Parlament.
Source: TSF
