Mark Dodd, Dili – Fretilin, the party that led East Timor's 24-year struggle for independence from Indonesia, has won the fledgling nation's first democratic election. But it fell short of the two-thirds majority in the new Constituent Assembly needed to draft unilaterally the country's Constitution, and may be forced into a coalition.

Announcing final results, the chief electoral officer, Mr Carlos Valeunzela, said: "It is my fervent hope that the election this year will have proven to the people of East Timor that elections can and should be peaceful events. In my view this would be the greatest legacy of this election."

Fretilin, the Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, won 55 seats in the 88-seat Constituent Assembly. The win acknowledges the party's popular support and its spearhead role in ending the brutal Indonesian occupation of the half-island territory that began with a bloody pre-dawn invasion on December 7, 1975.

Fretilin secured 12 of the 13 district seats in the one-chamber assembly. Of the 75 national seats, Fretilin took an overall 57.37 per cent share of the vote to give it 43 seats – well under the 80 to 85 per cent share of the vote predicted by the party's secretary-general, Mr Mari Alkatiri.

Its nearest opponent, the Democratic Party, won seven seats, the left-leaning Association of Timorese Social Democrats and the Social Democrat Party – led by the former Indonesian governor Mr Mario Carrascalao – both won six seats.

The new assembly will be officially inaugurated on Saturday week and will include 23 elected women members, or 27 per cent of the total.

After being sworn in next week, it will have 90 days to adopt the first Constitution for an independent East Timor. The Constitution will pave the way for another election, possibly in April, to choose a president. The former guerilla leader Mr Xanana Gusmao is almost certain to win.

Fretilin's president, Mr LuOlo (Francisco Guterres), promised a government of national unity would soon be formed. "Fretilin would like to solemnly reaffirm that it wants to form an all-inclusive government, a government that is transparent, an efficient government without corruption or nepotism, a state in which morality and ethics prevail in the public interest."

The United Nations' transitional administrator, Mr Sergio Vieira de Mello, said he would appoint a new government next week after the election results were certified. The government would be headed by an all-Timorese Council of Ministers and Chief Minister, the composition of which would be discussed with Mr Alkatiri on Thursday, he said.

Speaking at a news conference with Mr Gusmao, Mr Vieira de Mello congratulated Fretilin on its victory and applauded the strong voter turnout and peaceful ballot. "East Timor has once again defied and proved wrong those sceptics who doubted its political maturity and indeed the eloquence of its democratic feelings," he said.

Mr Vieira de Mello said the Indonesian Foreign Minister, Mr Hassan Wirayuda, had phoned him on Wednesday to offer his Government's congratulations and had invited senior East Timorese and UN officials to visit Jakarta next week for talks with President Megawati Sukarnoputri.