Voters Head to Polls for First Election
East Timor went to the polls today for its first free election, a major step on the Asian territory’s often bloody path to independence after four centuries under the control of Portugal and Indonesia.
Voters were choosing the 88-member assembly that will write the fledgling country’s constitution, and there was little doubt who would win. The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor, or Fretilin, which led the country’s independence struggle, had a comfortable lead in opinion polls.
The United Nations said the first results of the election would not be released before next week.
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