Courtesy of East Timor Studies, I came across this 26 page paper from Australia which summarises as simply as I can handle, the 14 parties contesting the upcoming parliamentary election – “Political Parties and Groupings of Timor-Leste”.
It is not going to tell you that much about why one should (if you could) vote for any of the parties, but it gives a short history and names important movers and shakers. I prepared a little table (below) where I doodled a bit and threw in some info. I was interested in when the parties started and also which ones seemed to be pushing a different language emphasis. (The language thing is not detailed in any way. It is just a summary of what this paper mentions on the subject. If not mentioned, nothing is put in the table.)
It was also the 1st time I looked at the current parliamentary distribution of seats. Based on round one of the presidential election, the distribution is expected to change significantly, with ASDT/PSD, PD and CNRT gaining seats at the expense of Fretilin. Who knows how much support the others have, particularly those parties established after 2002 who do not currently have parliamentary representation.
As you can see, the mnemonics (ie abbreviated name of party) make it all pretty confusing.
| Party | Started | Current Seats |
Stated position on language | Key Players |
| ASDT | 1974 | 6 | Tetun, Portuguese, English | Xavier do Amaral |
| CNRT | 2007 | – | Xanana Gusmao, Agio Pereira, Dionisio Soares | |
| Fretilin | 1974 | 54 | Tetun, Portuguese | Francisco “LuOlu” Guterres, Mari Alkatiri, Estanislau da Silva |
| KOTA | 1974 | 2 | Tetun, Portuguese, Bahasa, English | Manuel Tilman, Leao Pedro dos Reis Amaral |
| PD | 2001 | 7 | Tetun | Mariano Sabino Lopes, Fernando “LaSama” de Araujo, Joao Boavida |
| PDC | 2000 | 3 | Antonio Ximenes, Rev Arlindo Marcal | |
| PMD | 2005 | – | Ermenegildo “Kupa” Lopes, Lettu Purn, Melio de Jesus | |
| PNT | 1999 | 2 | Tetun, Bahasa, English, Portuguese | Dr. Abilio Araujo, Allanca Conceicao de Araujo |
| PPT | 2000 | 1 | Dr.Jacob Xavier | |
| PR | 2005 | – | Tetun, Portuguese, English | Joao Saldanha |
| PSD | 2000 | 6 | Tetun, Portuguese, English | Mario Carrascalao, Zacarias Albano da Costa, Joao Goncalves |
| PST | 1995? | 6 | Tetun, Portuguese | Avelino Coelho da Silva, Nelson Correia |
| PUN | 2006 | – | Fernando Borges | |
| UDT | 1974 | 2 | Portuguese | Joao Carrascalao, Quiteria da Costa |
| Undertim | 2005 | – | Tetun, Portuguese, English, Bahasa | Cornelio “L7” Gama, Cristiano da Costa |
Addendum : The ALP web site is no longer hosting the PDF file mentioned above. It can now be found at :
That pdf doesnt work…
I think the ALP webmaster was over-awed with the Dalai Lama and allowed his prayer wheel to hit the keyboard.
In the public interest, I am hosting it myself.
Try http://dili-gence.wombathole.com/timor_leste_political_parties_and_groupings_2nd_edition.pdf
Hi there,
just to let you know that the ALP link to the document is available again – we were incoporating some changes into the document. Tis now available in Bahasa as well.
Cheers
Gavin Ryan