East Timor coalition set to form government led by Xanana Gusmao

By Nelson Da Cruz

DILI (Reuters) – A six-party coalition in East Timor is ready to form a government led by independence hero Xanana Gusmao, it told President Francisco Guterres in a letter on Tuesday, the spokesperson said on Tuesday -spokesperson for the coalition.

Gusmao, 73, the first president and former prime minister, announced last month that he had formed a new coalition controlling 34 of the 65 seats in parliament and would prepare to form a new government.

“This coalition must present itself as an alternative to get out of the political impasse,” as its objective, spokesman Antonio da Conceicao told the press.

The small Southeast Asian nation faces a new wave of political instability since the collapse of a coalition supporting Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak, who goes by a popular name rather than his birth name, José Maria of Vasconcelos.

The prime minister resigned last month after repeatedly failing to pass a 2020 budget after the largest party in his coalition, Gusmao’s National Congress for the Reconstruction of Timor (CNRT), withdrew its support.

It was supported by a tripartite coalition, the Alliance for Change for Progress (AMP).

But there has been periodic political impasse and growing tensions after Guterres, who belongs to the opposition Fretilin party, rejected some ministers proposed by Gusmao, following accusations of corruption.

Da Conceicao said the decision to install Gusmao, who held the position from 2007 to 2015, was Guterres’.

Gusmao was at the forefront of efforts to end Indonesian rule after Jakarta annexed the territory in 1976 and was imprisoned under former Indonesian President Suharto.

Indonesia agreed to hold a referendum in 1999, which resulted in a violent vote in favour of independence for the former Portuguese colony, before it became an independent state in 2002.

Asia’s youngest democracy has been plagued by political instability in recent years, hampering efforts to reduce poverty, root out corruption and develop its rich oil and gas resources.

The energy sector contributed about 60 percent of gross domestic product in 2014 and more than 90 percent of government revenue.

(Reporting by Nelson Da Cruz; writing by Ed Davies and Stanley Widianto; editing by Clarence Fernandez)