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DILI - East Timor Prime Minister Jose Ramos-Horta appeared to be leading in the early vote count in a run-off election to pick the tiny nation's next president.
"The general conclusion is that Ramos-Horta is in first place," national election commission spokeswoman Maria Angelina Sarmento said yesterday.
The commission's observations were backed by the tiny nation's leading newspaper which gave Ramos-Horta a clear lead with 102,481 votes to 34,163 for former guerrilla Francisco Guterres.
The Suara Timor Lorosae said it got the figures from its own count of polling stations in 11 of 13 districts.
Preliminary official results are not expected until this evening.
Wednesday's polls passed peacefully with few reports of glitches in contrast to the first round vote a month ago which was marred by complaints of widespread irregularities.
Ramos-Horta and Guterres - a former independence fighter and president of the ruling Fretilin Party - won the most votes in the first round, but none of the eight candidates won a clear majority, forcing a run-off.
Slightly more than half-a-million people were eligible to vote in the election and turnout is expected to have approached the 82 per cent seen in the first round a month ago.
Analysts have mainly tipped Ramos-Horta, who spearheaded an overseas campaign for East Timor's independence, to win after five of the first-round losers urged their supporters to vote for him. But Guterres enjoys strong grassroots support in many areas.
Outgoing President Xanana Gusmao will now run for the post of prime minister.
- REUTERS
