April 17, 2002 Ex-Guerrilla Is Far Ahead in East Timor's Election By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
DILI, East Timor, April 16 (AP) — The former guerrilla leader José Alexandre Gusmão has taken a commanding lead in East Timor's first presidential election, according to preliminary results released today.
With 89 percent of the 378,538 votes counted, Mr. Gusmão was leading with 79.4 percent, based on data released by the electoral commission.
His sole challenger, Francisco Xavier do Amaral, trailed far behind with 17 percent. Remaining ballots were ruled invalid.
The election is the final step in East Timor's long and violent struggle to break free of foreign rule. On May 20, East Timor, with a population of about 800,000, will become the world's newest independent country when a transitional United Nations administration formally hands over the running of the country.
United Nations electoral officials refused to comment on the results. The official winner will be announced at noon on Wednesday.
"We won," said Milena Pires, Mr. Gusmão's campaign manger. "We have around 80 percent already, which is an excellent achievement."
Mr. do Amaral, who had said he was only running to provide the electorate a choice, has no immediate plans to concede defeat, his supporters said. But a crowd of supporters, sitting under a banyan tree outside their candidate's seafront office, appeared resigned to the fact that he would lose. At the counting center here in Dili, the capital, dozens of election officials worked through the night tallying votes.
Mr. Gusmão, who has long been the overwhelming favorite to win the vote, was resting at home today, his aides said. He had no plans to claim victory until Wednesday, they said.
The United Nations has been overseeing the country since it voted overwhelmingly to break free from Indonesia in a United Nations referendum in August 1999.
After that plebiscite, the Indonesian military and pro-Jakarta militiamen killed hundreds of people and destroyed much of the territory in a systematic campaign of revenge. The violence only stopped a month later when international peacekeepers arrived.
Mr. Gusmão led East Timor's guerrilla army against Indonesia's occupation forces. He was captured in 1992 and kept in a Jakarta jail for seven years.
Mr. do Amaral served as president for nine days after four centuries of Portuguese colonial rule collapsed and before Indonesia invaded on Dec. 7, 1975. [end]