President of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent Timor-Leste Party (Fretilin) Francisco Guterres won the country’s fourth presidential election, results of the vote count showed on March 21.

President of the Revolutionary Front for an Independent Timor-Leste Party (Fretilin) Francisco Guterres (Source: sbs.com.au)

Accordingly, Guterres secured 57% of the valid votes, while his main rival, Minister of Education Antonio da Conceicao from the Democratic Party garnered 33 percent of the votes.

Guterres has been supported by both biggest parties in Timor-Leste - the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction and the Fretilin.

If the official results to be announced next week confirms his landslide win, Guterres will swear in in May, serving a five-year term.

On March 20, 700,000 Timor-Leste voters headed to the polls to elect their leader among Guterres, da Conceicao and six other candidates.

Timor-Leste gained its independence on May 20, 2002, following a UN-supervised referendum in 1999 in which the Timor-Leste people overwhelmingly voted for separation from Indonesia.

(Source: VNA)