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This article is part of a series on the politics and government of Timor-Leste |
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Constitution |
Legislature |
Judiciary
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Parliamentary elections were held in East Timor on 22 July 2017. [1] FRETILIN narrowly emerged as the largest party in the National Parliament, winning 23 seats to the 22 won by the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction, which had been the largest party in the outgoing Parliament.
East Timor or Timor-Leste, officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is a country in Maritime Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the nearby islands of Atauro and Jaco, and Oecusse, an exclave on the northwestern side of the island surrounded by Indonesian West Timor. Australia is the country's southern neighbour, separated by the Timor Sea. The country's size is about 15,410 km2.
The National Parliament is the unicameral national legislature in East Timor. It was created in 2001 as the Constituent Assembly while the country was still under the supervision of the United Nations, but renamed itself to the National Parliament with the attaining of national independence on 20 May 2002.
The National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction is a political party in East Timor founded by former President Xanana Gusmão in March 2007 in preparation for the 2007 parliamentary election.
The 65 members of the National Parliament were elected from a single nationwide constituency by closed list proportional representation. Parties are required to have a woman in at least every third position in their list. Seats are allocated using the d'Hondt method with an electoral threshold of 4%. [2] [3]
Closed list describes the variant of party-list proportional representation where voters can (effectively) only vote for political parties as a whole and thus have no influence on the party-supplied order in which party candidates are elected. If voters have at least some influence then it is called an open list.
Proportional representation (PR) characterizes electoral systems in which divisions in an electorate are reflected proportionately in the elected body. If n% of the electorate support a particular political party, then roughly n% of seats will be won by that party. The essence of such systems is that all votes contribute to the result - not just a plurality, or a bare majority. The most prevalent forms of proportional representation all require the use of multiple-member voting districts, as it is not possible to fill a single seat in a proportional manner. In fact, the implementations of PR that achieve the highest levels of proportionality tend to include districts with large numbers of seats.
The D'Hondt method or the Jefferson method is a highest averages method for allocating seats, and is thus a type of party-list proportional representation. The method described is named in the United States after Thomas Jefferson, who introduced the method for proportional allocation of seats in the United States House of Representatives in 1791, and in Europe after Belgian mathematician Victor D'Hondt, who described it in 1878 for proportional allocation of parliamentary seats to the parties. There are two forms: closed list and an open list.
Party | Votes | % | Seats | +/– |
---|---|---|---|---|
FRETILIN | 168,480 | 29.7 | 23 | –2 |
National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction | 167,345 | 29.5 | 22 | –8 |
People's Liberation Party | 60,098 | 10.6 | 8 | New |
Democratic Party | 55,608 | 9.8 | 7 | –1 |
Kmanek Haburas Unidade Nasional Timor Oan | 36,547 | 6.4 | 5 | +5 |
United Party for Development and Democracy | 15,887 | 2.8 | 0 | New |
Timorese Democratic Union | 11,255 | 2.0 | 0 | 0 |
Frenti-Mudança | 8,849 | 1.6 | 0 | –2 |
Hope of the Fatherland Party | 6,775 | 1.2 | 0 | New |
Timorese People's Monarchy Association | 5,461 | 1.0 | 0 | 0 |
Bloku Unidade Popular (PMD–PLPA–PDRT) | 4,999 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 |
Socialist Party of Timor | 4,891 | 0.9 | 0 | 0 |
Social Democratic Party | 4,688 | 0.8 | 0 | 0 |
Republican Party | 3,951 | 0.7 | 0 | 0 |
National Development Party | 3,846 | 0.7 | 0 | 0 |
Timorese Social Democratic Central Action | 2,330 | 0.4 | 0 | New |
People's Development Party | 2,079 | 0.4 | 0 | 0 |
Christian Democratic Party | 1,764 | 0.3 | 0 | 0 |
Freedom movement of the Maubere People | 1,332 | 0.2 | 0 | New |
National Unity of Timorese Resistance | 1,216 | 0.2 | 0 | 0 |
Timorese Democratic Party | 669 | 0.1 | 0 | 0 |
Invalid/blank votes | 15,886 | – | – | – |
Total | 583,956 | 100 | 65 | 0 |
Registered voters/turnout | 760,907 | 76.74 | – | – |
Source: CNE |
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