DILI, East Timor, April 19, 2022 (BSS/AFP) - People across East Timor went
to the polls on Tuesday to choose either a Nobel laureate or a former
guerrilla fighter -- the incumbent president -- as their next leader.

   Frontrunner Jose Ramos-Horta has pledged to break a longstanding deadlock
between the two main political parties in Southeast Asia's youngest country
should he win the run-off election against President Francisco "Lu-Olo"
Guterres.

   "If I win ... I will hold a dialogue with political parties, including
(Guterres') Fretilin, so they can work together to maintain stability and
peace in Timor-Leste," the Nobel peace prize winner told journalists Tuesday,
holding aloft a finger stained purple after casting his vote.

   Former guerilla leader Guterres, meanwhile, promised "to ensure national
stability, and to adhere to the mission as president of the republic, which
is inseparable from the constitution", at a polling station in the capital
Dili.

   Both candidates have pledged to respect the election results regardless of
the outcome.

   The poll is a rematch of a 2007 election won handily by Ramos-Horta, a
former revolutionary hero.

   Nearly 860,000 of East Timor's 1.3 million citizens are eligible to vote,
and ballot counting could take several days.

   Ramos-Horta was dominant in the election's first round on March 19,
winning 46 percent of votes versus President Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres' 22
percent, but failed to secure the needed majority.

   Participation across the nation reached 77 percent as voters chose between
16 candidates.

   The winner will take office for five years from May 20 -- the 20th
anniversary of East Timor's independence from Indonesia, which occupied the
former Portuguese colony for 24 years.

   The election is seen as a chance to reset a political deadlock between the
National Congress of the Reconstruction of Timor-Leste (CNRT) and Guterres'
Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor (Fretilin).

   Guterres, 67, was elected as the country's leader in 2017 with the support
of former rebel Xanana Gusmao, the country's first president and current CNRT
leader.

   But Gusmao has this time thrown his party's weight behind Ramos-Horta, who
won the Nobel peace prize in 1996 for his efforts towards ending the conflict
in East Timor and was the main spokesperson of the independence movement.

   The 72-year-old, who survived an assassination attempt in 2008, served as
the country's first prime minister before his presidential term from 2007 to
2012. He came out of retirement to challenge Guterres after accusing him of
violating the constitution.

   The president has refused to endorse CNRT ministers since 2018, plunging
the country into political paralysis.

   Ramos-Horta indicated he could dissolve the parliament if elected to end
the deadlock.

   In the 2007 presidential election, Ramos-Horta won by 69 percent while
Guterres gained 31 percent of the votes.

   The tiny nation is still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic's impact on
its economy.

   Speaking to AFP outside a polling station, university student Lizia
Bahkita de Araujo, 27, said she hoped whoever won would focus on education.

   "During the Covid-19 pandemic, students faced a difficult situation
because their classes were moved online, and it did not go well because of
the bad internet," de Araujo said, adding jobs for the country's young were
also a pressing concern.

   According to the World Bank, 42 percent of the population lives in
poverty.