Fretilin takes commanding lead in first election

Fretilin takes commanding lead in first election

DILI, East Timor (Agencies): East Timor's independence heroes,
Fretilin, appear to have taken a commanding lead on Wednesday as
counting in the territory's first democratic election nears an
end.

UN chief electoral officer Carlos Valenzuela told reporters
Fretilin had already won 11 of the 13 district seats in the 88-
member constituent assembly. The assembly will prepare the UN-run
territory for independence, most likely early next year.

Fretilin, which spearheaded the almost 24-year fight for
independence from Indonesia, is averaging about 50 percent of
votes for the remaining 75 seats as results come in from around
the half-island territory.

Counting in the largest district, the capital Dili, is still
going on, Valenzuela said.

So far, no other party has won a district seat. A pro-Fretilin
independent, Antonio da Costa Lelan, has won the district seat of
Oecussi and the 13th has yet to be decided.

There was a huge turnout for Thursday's elections -- the first
since the fledgling nation shook off more than two decades of
Indonesian rule, and four centuries of Portuguese domination.

An estimated 91 percent of East Timorese voters went to the
polls to choose 13 district and 75 national representatives to
sit on the constituent assembly, which will draft a founding
constitution and become the parliament.

In the national vote Fretilin has outpaced its rivals in 10 of
the 11 districts tallied so far, even polling as 74.9 percent of
the vote in one district.

ASDT, the Timorese Social Democratic Association, led by
Fretilin's former leader, Xavier do Amaral, wiped Fretilin out in
Aileu district, garnering 52.3 percent of the vote there.

Amaral was president of East Timor for nine days in 1975, in
the brief window between Fretilin's proclamation of independence
and Indonesia's invasion.

Fretilin, formed as a radical left-wing pro-independence party
in 1974 as the Portuguese colonialists were departing, has failed
to score the 85 to 88 percent victory its leaders were predicting
ahead of the Aug. 30 poll, according to provisional tallies.

The final, uncertified tally will be announced Thursday after
election organizers meet with the political parties, spokeswoman
for the United Nations administration in East Timor, Barbara
Reis, told AFP by phone from Dili.

The allocation of national seats, which will be calculated
proportionally, will also be announced, she added.

Parties will have four days to appeal, while the count is
being certified and confirmed. Official, confirmed results will
be announced on Sept. 10.

The assembly is expected to be inaugurated in the following
week.

The UN's chief administrator in East Timor, Sergio Vieira de
Mello, will pick the cabinet, which will be all-Timorese, replace
the current transitional cabinet on which foreigners and Timorese
sit.

The cabinet will be answerable to de Mello until full
independence, which is expected to be declared after presidential
elections around March or April next year.

Indonesia's 24 year rule of East Timor ended in 1999 when
almost 80 percent of East Timorese voted in a UN-organized ballot
to split from Jakarta, triggering a wave of killing and
destruction by Indonesian-backed local militias.