Political career
Santos has been KHUNTO's leader since its foundation in 2011. [3] In the 2012 East Timorese parliamentary election,KHUNTO won 2.97% of the popular vote,and therefore failed by only 150 votes to overcome the 3% electoral threshold and have two members elected to the National Parliament. [4]
In the 2017 parliamentary election,Santos was elected to the National Parliament as the party's list leader. [5] She also became vice-chairman of the Committee for Infrastructure,Transport and Communications (Committee-E) and a member of the Committee for Economic Affairs and Development (Committee-D). [6]
In the early election in 2018,Santos was ranked #3 in the Alliance for Change and Progress (AMP),of which KHUNTO was a part,and was again elected to the National Parliament. [7] On 22 June 2018,she was sworn in as Minister of Social Solidarity and Inclusion in the new VIII Constitutional Government,and therefore automatically had to give up her parliamentary seat. [8] [9]
In March 2020,Santos was reelected as leader of KHUNTO for the period 2020 to 2024. [10]
Following a breakdown of the AMP coalition in the first few months of 2020,the CNRT,which had been the lead party in that coalition,decided on 30 April 2020 that its members serving in the VIII Constitutional Government would resign their positions. The CNRT informed the Prime Minister of its decision on 8 May 2020,but KHUNTO continued to support the government. [11]
On 12 May 2020,the government approved the creation of two new positions of Deputy Prime Minister, [12] and on 29 May 2020,Santos was sworn in as holder of one of those new positions,while retaining her role as Minister for Social Solidarity and Inclusion. [13]
Early the following month,at a ceremony held in Suco Comoro,Dom Aleixo administrative post,Dili,Santos presided over the official launch of the payment of monetary support to households under the government's COVID-19 pandemic response. [14]
While serving as Deputy Prime Minister,Santos was also KHUNTO's candidate in the 2022 East Timorese presidential election. [15] [16] In an election analysis published by the University of Melbourne,Australia,she was described as:
"... an enigmatic candidate ... [whose] presence and influence ... is held up by some Timorese as a testament to the greater diversity of gender, class and indeed 'traditional' Timorese culture allowed voice ...
... her political persona is marked by a potential intersecting disadvantage: her gender, her socio-economic status and rural background mark her out as an outsider from the usual Dili political and civil society elite." [2]
During the presidential election campaign, Santos was "mocked and denigrated on social media" after she objected to demands that the national presidential debate be conducted in Portuguese. As she pointed out, neither she nor the majority of East Timor's population would even be able to participate in, or even understand, any such debate. [2]
In the ensuing first round of the election process, she finished third out of the 16 candidates, with 56,690 votes (8.7% of the total); [17] that result was described by another commentator as part of a "... power transition from the old to younger generations, and from men to women ..." [18]
Santos's tenure as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister ended when the IX Constitutional Government took office on 1 July 2023. [19]
