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U.N. hails polls in East Timor

P. S. Suryanarayana

SINGAPORE: The U.N. has commended Timor Leste, formerly East Timor, for holding an orderly parliamentary poll. As the national Election Commission began counting the votes on Sunday, Atul Khare, head of the U.N. mission in that country, told The Hindu over telephone from Dili, the capital, that the entire poll process was “moving forward quite well now”.

The voting on Saturday took place in a “quite peaceful and festive atmosphere” despite “some violence” in a few pockets during the pre-poll campaign.

The latest poll, which followed a smooth presidential election, was “a very positive sign of a qualitative change in the situation” in the “post-conflict country” that at one time looked like “going into a civil war,” Mr. Khare said. He cited in particular the “transparency” of the current poll process.

Two prominent candidates for the Prime Minister’s post, which will be decided on the basis of this poll, are Xanana Gusmao, leader of the independence struggle, and Mari Alkatiri, former Prime Minister, whose action against “rebel soldiers” had led to a political chain-reaction of communal violence.

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