Sintra, Portugal – "Portugal does not recognise any validity in the elections that took place in East Timor on May 29, as a result of the illegal extension to that territory of the legislative elections in Indonesia", the government has said in a statement.

Portuguese Foreign Minister Jaime Gama said also on Thursday that Lisbon had made a formal complaint to the United Nations and made contacts with its European partners to condemn the way Indonesia was handling the elections.

Gama said "elections in Indonesia have not been free".

In East Timor, an occupied territory, those elections could not have been free, and the people there have shown that they do not accept occupation and annexation".

He added "they want self-determination".

East Timorese activist and 1996 Nobel Peace Prize co-laureate, Jose Ramos Horta, called the elections a "fraud".