Belo won't vote, says governor

DILI, East Timor (JP): Dili Bishop Filipe Carlos Ximenes Belo has confirmed he won't vote in the May 29 general election because he will be in the United States, East Timor Governor Abilio Soares said yesterday.

Soares, while welcoming Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Alatas at Komoro airport, told reporters that Belo would be on his way to Washington from New York on the day that more than 124 million Indonesians will cast their votes.

"He will have no time to take part in the election. He will be carrying out his duty and we cannot stop him," Soares said.

"As an East Timorese, I believe he is making a trip in the interests of this province, the country and humankind around the world," he added.

There has been speculation that Belo has ulterior motives for not voting. Some sources have said the bishop is disappointed with organizations which blasted his controversial statements in Der Spiegel magazine last year.

The election, the seventh in the republic's history and the fourth in this province, will be contested by the United Development Party (PPP), the ruling Golkar and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

Eligible voters will go to 12,496 polling booths across the archipelago, while those abroad can vote at Indonesian embassies.

Surveys of university students recently revealed that many of them would probably boycott the general election. And politics expert Arbi Sanit has predicted that about 20 million people will shun the election.

Nobel Peace Prize co-winner Belo plans to visit Europe and the United States. He will address youth groups on May 10 at Olimpico Stadium in Rome on justice and world peace in the 21st century.

Italy's President Oscar Luigi Scafaro and Rita Barselino, the widow of an outstanding antimafia judge, will attend his speech.

Belo will then meet with his counterparts in the United States. (33/amd)