East Timor gears up for election to break political impasse

By FERNANDO da COSTA
Associated Press

DILI, East Timor (AP) — Thousands of people in East Timor have flocked to presidential campaign rallies days before an election that will test the young nation’s stability amid a protracted political crisis and economic uncertainty. The two contenders are incumbent Francisco “Lu-Olo” Guterres and former President Jose Ramos-Horta, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Opinion surveys show Horta in the lead. He announced he would run again in January, a decade after his first term ended. In the last four years, continuing tensions between the two largest parties led to the resignation of the prime minister and occasional violence on the streets. The election on Saturday also marks the 20th anniversary of East Timor’s independence from Indonesia, which had invaded the former Portuguese colony in 1975.