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East Timorese flock to polls

Dili April 14. East Timorese flocked to the polls today to pick the man who next month will represent their tiny country as President when it becomes the first new nation of the new millennium.

Even before the sun rose above the mountains that ring Dili, East Timor's waterfront capital, crowds were milling around polling booths. There was keen competition to be first in line when the voting slips were handed out for a lopsided contest in which the independence hero, Xanana Gusmao, takes on a relative unknown, Francisco Xavier do Amaral. The men are running independently of political parties.

Today's vote marks another way station for this once-troubled region on its way to statehood. Voters already elected a Parliament last August, for a provisional Government led by Chief Minister, Mari Alkatiri, who will become Prime Minister on independence day, May 20.

That's the day the powder-blue flag of the United Nations will be taken down and the banner of ``Timor Lorosae'' run up to take its place. The President _ most likely the warrior-poet Gusmao, who was once jailed by the Indonesian Government for his political activism _ will have limited powers in this semi-presidential system: he will be able to dismiss Parliament and declare war, but he does not appoint the Government.

But a big mandate for Mr. Gusmao, who led East Timor out of colonial status in 1999, will give him a lot of clout over the Fretilin party, which holds 55 of the 88 seats in Parliament. Mr. Gusmao intends to show that there is popular support for a powerful President who can check the might of a Government run by Fretilin _ the former warriors group he used to lead. — DPA

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