Parliamentary elections were held in East Timor on 21 May 2023. The governing coalition going into the election was a four-party government of Fretilin, the People's Liberation Party (PLP), Kmanek Haburas Unidade Nasional Timor Oan (KHUNTO) and the Democratic Party (PD), whilst the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) was in opposition but held the presidency.
Background.
Initially, after the 2018 East Timorese parliamentary election, the VIII Constitutional Government was drawn from and supported by a coalition known as the Alliance for Change and Progress (AMP), which was made up of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT), the People's Liberation Party (PLP) and Kmanek Haburas Unidade Nasional Timor Oan (KHUNTO). Prime Minister Marí Bin Amude Alkatiri of Fretilin had to hand over his office to Taur Matan Ruak of the PLP. However, a large number of the candidates nominated by the CNRT for government posts were refused appointment by President Francisco Guterres (FRETILIN), as he considered them unsuitable for various reasons. Taur Matan Ruak managed to form a cabinet anyway by having the vacant positions of the missing CNRT members co-administered by other government members. In the National Parliament, the AMP denied the opposition parties Fretilin and Partido Democrático (PD) adequate participation in the presidium and in the management of the committees, which led to further conflicts.
In 2020, CNRT MPs increasingly blamed Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak for the fact that most of the CNRT ministers were still not in office after 18 months. On 17 January, the government's budget proposal failed because CNRT MPs abstained. Taur Matan Ruak therefore declared the end of the AMP, but President Guterres asked him to continue leading the government for the time being. On 22 February, CNRT, KHUNTO, PD, Timorese Democratic Union (UDT), Frenti-Mudança (FM) and United Party for Development and Democracy (PUDD) signed a coalition agreement to form a new government. However, Guterres again did not accept Taur Matan Ruak's request to resign two days later and instead asked him to continue leading the transitional government. With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in East Timor at the end of March, another crisis hit the country. KHUNTO then declared that it would now support Taur Matan Ruak again, and he withdrew his request for resignation on 8 April. The proposal of the Six Party Alliance to appoint Gusmão as Prime Minister was not answered by President Guterres. On 27 April, the coalition lost a vote in parliament on the state of emergency over COVID-19, as PLP, KHUNTO, and Fretilin voted unanimously. This was the end of the coalition, and the VIII government now included Fretilin representatives in the cabinet, as well as Júlio Sarmento da Costa of the PD, who now also supported the government. Parliamentary Speaker Arão Noé da Costa Amaral of the CNRT was replaced by Aniceto Guterres Lopes of Fretilin and the committee boards were reconstituted, now excluding the CNRT.
Following the breakdown of the AMP coalition during the first few months of 2020, a new governing coalition took place in the form of four-party government of Fretilin–PLP–KHUNTO–PD on 12 May 2020, new officials were appointed on 29 May and 24 June 2020.
Presidential elections were held on 19 March 2022. Incumbent Francisco Guterres sought election to a second term. As none of the presidential nominees received at least 50% of the cast votes, a runoff was held on 19 April 2022, between the top two candidates, José Ramos-Horta and Guterres. Ramos-Horta won the runoff with 62.1% of the total votes cast. The election marked the first time that someone had been re-elected to the East Timorese presidency (albeit to a non-consecutive term), as well as the second time that an incumbent president had been defeated – after the 2012 election, when Ramos-Horta was eliminated in the first round. Former President José Ramos-Horta came out of retirement as he stated that incumbent president Francisco "Lú-Olo" Guterres had violated the constitution. Guterres had previously refused to swear in several ministers from Ramos-Horta's party on the grounds that they were currently undergoing legal investigations over corruption. Ramos-Horta stated that in the event of winning the presidential election, he would potentially dissolve parliament and call for new elections. Ramos-Horta, who always sought a balance between the political parties in his speeches, remained vague in his comments on his post-election plans. Ramos-Horta ran on a platform of poverty reduction, increasing healthcare services for mothers and children, as well as increasing job creation. He also stated that he wanted to try and improve communication across the governing political parties for the purposes of increasing stability. In addition, Ramos-Horta stated his intention on working with the government to address supply chain issues from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and Russian invasion of Ukraine. After his victory over incumbent Guterres, Ramos-Horta declared that he would support the VIII government until the end of its mandate.
In November 2022, Ramos-Horta had initially set the regular new elections for parliament for 20 February 2023. But a discussion then broke out about the exact timing and convenience of the election date. Finally, President Ramos-Horta announced 21 May as the election date. This would allow the final results to be announced in June and the new parliament to take office at the same time as the parliamentarians for the 2018 legislature which then on was 12 June (the new government was sworn in on 21 June). In addition, the 2024 national budget could be passed in time, which would avoid various problems, and the ASEAN summit will be held in September to admit East Timor as an official member. Fretilin had proposed a date in the second half of the year.
Electoral system.
The 65 members of the National Parliament were elected from a single nationwide constituency by closed list proportional representation. Parties were required to have a woman in at least every third position in their list. Seats were allocated using the d'Hondt method with an electoral threshold of four percent and with the last seat, in the case of several equal maximum numbers, being awarded to the party with the fewest votes. In order to jump the four per cent hurdle (about 26,000 voters), parties can form electoral alliances. Voters who have cast their ballot are marked on their finger with a purple, non-washable ink to prevent double voting. For this purpose, 10,000 bottles of ink were purchased at a cost of $394,000 through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).
The Secretáriado Técnico de Administração Eleitoral (STAE) provides a total of 1,472 polling centres and 1,850 polling stations in the country. There are 890,145 people registered on the electoral rolls, 11,800 of whom are abroad. Polling stations are therefore also being prepared in Australia (Darwin, Melbourne and Sydney), Portugal (Lisbon, Porto and Beja), South Korea (Gwangju and Seoul) and the United Kingdom (Crewe, Dungannon, Peterborough and Oxford). About 20,000 people are working to conduct the election on polling day. Voters had to cast their ballots in their home municipality, which meant that many residents of the capital Dili had to travel to their homes on election day. Following experience in the last presidential elections, a voting centre is now to be opened in Dili for each East Timorese municipality in the parliamentary elections as well, in order to save voters the trip. The Secretáriado Técnico de Administração Eleitoral (STAE) plans to provide a total of 1500 polling centres and 1880 polling stations in the country.
On 14 March, President Ramos-Horta vetoed a number of amendments to the electoral law. In his letter to MPs in parliament, he supported the planned introduction of postal voting and documents in Braille, but rejected the parallel polling stations for voters who cannot travel to their home town to vote. These had been introduced for the first time in the last presidential elections and were now to be extended. Ramos-Horta explained that the necessary mechanisms and registers would be lacking to prevent double voting. He also criticised the planned direct forwarding of the counting data to the National Electoral Commission (CNE), although the constitution requires a listing first at the ballot box and then at the municipal level. Moreover, the new electoral law does not mention the new municipality of Atauro, which is why there is no polling station on the island at all. Parliament now had to decide on the amendments requested by the head of state. On 20 March, by 37 votes to 22 (with two abstentions), parliament sent the law back to Ramos-Horta unchanged. If the new law is passed again, the president is obliged to sign it into law.
Parties and alliances.
Parties could register their participation in the election until 15 March 2023. The election campaign began on 19 April.
In 2018, East Timor's Supreme Court (Tribunal de Recurso) revoked the eligibility of the seven parties ASDT, KOTA, PDL, PUN, PARENTIL, PNT and PTT, leaving the CNE to list 24 recognised political parties in East Timor on 15 February. This includes the Green Party (PVT), which was registered in 2022. However, the tribunal also found the Millennium Democratic Party (PMD), the Democratic Republic of Timor Party (PDRT), the People's Party of Development (PDP) and the Timorese Democratic Party (PTD) ineligible to contest the 2023 general elections due to a lack of legal requirements.
At the end of January, the Democratic Alliance (AD) was founded by the National Democratic Alliance (AND), PDP and People's Freedom Party of the Aileba (PLPA). The official recognition of the AND as a political party at the Tribunal has not yet been completed.
On 4 March, four parties formed an electoral alliance. The Broad Democratic Front (FAD) includes the UDT and the FM as well as the two parties not represented in parliament, Timorese Social Democratic Action Center (CASDT) and National Development Party (PDN). Another coalition was announced by the PDRT and the Timorese People's Monarchist Association (APMT).
On 13 March, the CNE confirmed the notification of the three coalitions, but the tribunal rejected all three alliances. The PDP from the Democratic Alliance and the PDRT would both have failed to meet the legal requirements as electable parties, making their party alliances obsolete. The AND had not yet gained recognition as a party anyway. In the case of the FAD, the PDN had withdrawn from the alliance on 14 March and filed an election petition as an individual party. The tribunal found that in the case of the PDN, no congress or national conference had confirmed cooperation with the other parties, which meant that the entire FAD did not receive registration. The remaining partners of the various alliances still had the option of filing for election individually.
By the deadline of 15 March, a total of 18 parties had submitted their electoral lists. Due to the internal party dispute in the Frenti-Mudança, electoral lists were submitted by both party leader Ricardo Cardoso Nheu and his predecessor Egídio de Jesus. Following the incidents surrounding the admission of electoral alliances and the question of which parties should be allowed to contest at all, both the tribunal and the CNE demanded that the future legislature clarify its jurisdiction over the decision to admit parties and electoral alliances, as this is where the court and the electoral authority come into conflict.
On 25 March, the tribunal ruled that 17 parties could contest the election. The Frenti-Mudança was refused admission to the election. There was no clarification as to which of the two lists represented the party and an attempt at conciliation between the two groups failed. The official list was published in the Jornal da República on 29 March.
On 15 April, leaders of the ruling parties Fretilin, PLP and KHUNTO signed an agreement to form a joint government alliance after the elections.
The PLPA and the AND concluded a "strategic agreement" which, if entered into parliament, would last for the entire legislative period until 2028. AND members were included in the PLPA's electoral list. Jorge da Conceição Teme, leader of the AND, headed the electoral list.
Campaign.
The election campaign officially began on 19 April and ran until 18 May. José Agostinho da Costa Belo, the president of the CNE, called on the parties to suspend campaigning on 20 April because a total solar eclipse was going to take place in East Timor on that day. He said the eclipse should not affect the election campaign.
In advance, the Matadalan Research Institute released the results of a