Vote counting from East Timor's parliamentary election neared completion Wednesday, showing no political party will be able to clinch an absolute majority needed to govern in its own right, making a coalition government most likely.
As of 5:30 p.m., 399,218 votes, about 94 percent of the national total, had been counted from the country's 13 districts, the National Election Commission announced.
The Fretilin party was in the lead with 112,897 votes, 29.19 percent, followed by its main rival, the National Congress for the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT) newly set up by former President Xanana Gusmao with 88,726 votes, 22.97 percent, election commission spokeswoman Maria Angelina Lopez Sarmento said.
Trailing the two main parties are an alliance of the Social Democratic Association of East Timor and the Social Democratic Party, with 15.79 percent, and the Democratic Party, with 11.65 percent.
"The turnout is about 81 percent, similar to that of the runoff of the presidential election (last month)," Sarmento added.
The election was participated in by a total of 12 individual parties and two coalitions of two parties each. Parliamentarians are elected through a party-list proportional representation system. A party must win an absolute majority, at least 33 seats, to rule in its own right.
Fretilin, whose members dominate the outgoing parliament, lost some of its luster after violence rocked the country in April and May last year, leaving at least 37 people dead and many thousands displaced.
Currently, more than 60,000 refugees still live in camps in some major cities in the country of 1 million people due to the violence that erupted after then Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri sacked 600 rebellious soldiers. The violence forced Alkatiri, Fretilin's secretary general, to resign as premier.
Despite Gusmao's popularity, many analysts had predicted his party would likely win only 20 to 25 percent of the popular vote. But it could set up an agreement with the Democratic Party and the Social Democratic Association of East Timor-Social Democratic Party alliance that Gusmao helped establish to gain a majority.
However, in a press conference later on the day, Fernando de Araujo, president of the Democratic Party, proposed a "national unity" Cabinet, sharing power proportionally among parties that get seats in parliament.
"We are facing many problems. We have lack of trust to each other and differences between East Timorese are very deep, so for the best of this country, it's better to go to this way," Araujo said.
"I hope that leaders of this state are willing to a little bit show their whole hearts to seek the best solution for this country. Don't put their own interests above others because if they do so, we will go nowhere," he added.
He believes that since Fretilin will likely get most votes, that party "has rights to determine more than others."
Alkatiri himself, however, has repeatedly said Fretilin will not set up a coalition with Gusmao's party and prefers to be in opposition.
In a related development, Social Democratic Party President Mario Viegas Carrascalao also put aside a possible coalition with Gusmao's party at this time.
"The CNRT can be a natural alliance (for us), but for the time being, I haven't eyed to set up a coalition with them, because there are former Fretilin members inside the party," he told a small group of East Timorese reporters. "It's something unacceptable to work with them," he added.
Meanwhile, in an interview with the Australian Associated Press, President Jose Ramos-Horta said the next government will be formed based on a coalition of several parties and he called for it to learn from the past mistakes made by Fretilin when it was in power.
"Once they produce a government with a majority, the leaders of the various parties comprising the coalition will always have to be very sensitive, humble, so the coalition can stay intact, so the government can function," Ramos-Horta said.
"If the leaders are not wise, humble and pragmatic enough, they will fail miserably and it will be heartbreaking for the poor people who have elected them," he added.
A Japanese election observation mission said the election was generally carried out peacefully without major confusion. Mission chief Katsunari Suzuki told a press conference the election was "a test case to judge whether democracy in this country consolidates itself or not."
Suzuki said all the stages in the election, from preparations to vote counting, took place in accordance with election rules despite some minor technical problems, such as some polling stations closing slightly earlier than stipulated in the rules.
He said he hopes that claims of irregularities found during the process can be settled "not through violence" and the will of the East Timorese people expressed through the election can be accepted by all.
East Timor, a former Portuguese colony, gained its independence in 2002 after two-and-a-half years under UN administration following a popular vote in 1999 in which its people voted to separate from Indonesia.