Fransisco Guterres, better known as 'Lu Olo', lodged his official nomination for East Timor's presidency on Tuesday with the endorsement of the Fretilin party.

In the last Presidential election Lu Olo received the most votes in the first round but didn't reach the required 50 per cent. He was beaten by Jose Ramos Horta in the second round.

Presenter: Liam Cochrane

Speakers: Fransisco Guterres, Presidential candidate for the Fretilin party; Filomeno Aleixo, translator

Guterres: (Voice to translation) I'm truly confident on my candidacy, because my candidacy's proposed by my own party and the president of the party and the hundreds of thousands of militants of the party of supporters from around the country will make it true.

Naturally, not only my own party supporters are supporting me, but members from other political parties throughout the country (will) vote for me for this presidential election.

Cochrane: And what issues will be important in this election?

Guterres: The main issue for me is to be a pure president of the republic of Timor Leste to consolidate the state's institution, the sovereignty of the country, the law, to have the rule of law in place to serve the country and its people. And be a pure, genuine chief of state for the country. My main commitment is to ensure peace and stability of the civility of the country and be the president for the whole people, the entire people of Timor Leste. I'm committing myself not to be the Opposition or to the parliament or the government of the country, but assure the smooth functioning of the state to serve the country.

Cochrane: The president of the East Timor is also the supreme commander of the military. With the UN expecting to withdraw after the mid-year parliamentary elections, can I ask are East Timor's armed forces ready to stand alone?

Guterres: It's true that the president of Timor Leste will be the supreme commander of the armed forces and I want to make it clear that the armed forces of Timor Leste are ready to assume their own responsibility as armed forces of the country. But one thing is important that our armed forces are ready to secure the sovereignty of the country, but not only that should be done. We are conscious that we need to have good relationship with big neighbours like Australia and Indonesia, countries of the region and the all world to work out proper security and defence mechanisms.

Cochrane: Let me ask you about that. If elected, how do you envisage the relationship between East Timor and Indonesia?

Guterres: We are committed ourself to work out good, proper relationships with every country. For sure, our neighbours should be our own top priority and Indonesia had in the past not a very good history with Timor Leste in the past. But we are not looking backward, we are walking forward and for that reason we need to improve as long as we can from now on the relationship with Indonesia, because we have a new Indonesia, not Suharto Indonesia anymore. We have a democratic Indonesia that started it's own democratic process when Timor Leste recovered its independence.

Cochrane: And what about the relationship with Australia?

Guterres: So far, we have had a very good and strong relationship Timor Leste and Australia and when I'm elected, I'll do all the best to even improve the understanding the relationship we have so far with Australia, extending the cooperation between the two countries, the friendship between the people and the states.