Elections, independence, democracy

In the first half of 2012, Timor-Leste organized the second series of national elections since its independence ten years earlier. Elections have been a vital part of this nation's recent history since the UN-sponsored referendum of 30 August 1999 – the first election in the land to be held in accordance to internationally accepted standards (Smith 2004a) – in which the overwhelming majority of its people (officially 78.5%, with a turnout of 98.6% of all registered electors) voted in favour of ending its 24-year-long incorporation into Indonesia, thus paving the way for independence (Martin 2001; Pereira Gomes 2001; Cardoso Gomes 2010a). Two years later, on 30 August 2001, a new vote was organized to install a Constituent Assembly (Sousa 2001; Fox 2003; King 2003; Smith 2004a). FRETILIN, an historical party associated with the Resistance, comfortably won 55 of the 88 seats and dominated the Assembly, which voted to extend its mandate to become the first parliament for the ensuing five years, thus granting that party the basis for stable government. On 14 April 2002, following the dispositions of the new constitution yet to be implemented and still under UN administration (UNTAET Regulation 2002/1), Xanana Gusmão, the Resistance leader running as an ‘independent’ candidate supported by a large number of smaller parties, albeit not the ruling one, won a landslide victory (83% vs 17%) over Xavier do Amaral, who had briefly been president of Timor-Leste in 1975 (Cardoso Gomes 2010a). Both of these elections were completely organized by the UN mission in Timor-Leste. Thus, when the flag of the first new nation of the 21st century was raised at midnight on 20 May 2002 and the independence of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste was proclaimed, the country had an elected President of the Republic, a National Parliament that resulted from the transformation of the elected Constituent Assembly into a legislative body and was the source of legitimacy for the country's government, and also the memory of a decisive vote that had opened up the route to make possible that historic moment.