| First Lady of East Timor | |
|---|---|
 | |
Incumbent Vacant since 20 May 2022 | |
| Residence | Nicolau Lobato Presidential Palace |
| Formation | 1975 |
The first lady of East Timor (Portuguese: Primeira-dama de Timor-Leste) is the title attributed to the wife of the president of East Timor.
| Portrait | Name | Term Began | Term Ended | President | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lucia Osorio Soares | November 28, 1975 | December 7, 1975 | Francisco Xavier do Amaral | Lucia Osorio Soares married Francisco Xavier do Amaral in 1974, a year before East Timor's short-lived proclamation of independence. However, the couple separated shortly after their marriage. Francisco Xavier do Amaral never remarried. [1] [2] | |
| Position vacant | December 7, 1975 | December 31, 1978 | Nicolau dos Reis Lobato (Acting president in exile) | Lobato's wife, Isabel Barreto Lobato, was executed by Indonesian forces in Dili on December 8, 1975, one day after the Indonesian invasion of East Timor. [3] [4] |
| Portrait | Name | Term Began | Term Ended | President | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Kirsty Sword Gusmão | May 20, 2002 | May 20, 2007 | Xanana Gusmão | Xanana Gusmão met Kirsty Sword, an Australian-born a teacher and human rights activist, in 1994 while he was serving a 20-year sentence as a political prison during the Indonesian occupation. The couple married in 2000, shortly after his release from prison. [5] Upon regaining independence in 2002, Sword become the first post-independence First Lady of East Timor. [5] Sword Gusmão focused on education during her tenure. In March 2015, Sword and Gusmão announced their separation. [5] |
| Position vacant | May 20, 2007 | February 11, 2008 | José Ramos-Horta | José Ramos-Horta and his former wife, Ana Pessoa Pinto, had divorced prior to his victory in the 2007 East Timorese presidential election. [6] President Ramos-Horta was shot and seriously wounded in an assassination attempt on February 11, 2008. While her remained president, two interim presidents served in office from February 11, 2008, until April 17, 2008. Their wives held the positions of interim first lady during that time. | |
| Maria Goretti Guterres Marques | February 11, 2008 | February 13, 2008 | Vicente Guterres | [7] | |
| Joy Aquino Siapno | February 13, 2008 | April 17, 2008 | Fernando de Araújo | Jacqueline "Joy" Aquino Siapno, a political economist and analyst, served as interim First Lady during 2008. [8] Aquino Siapno, who is originally from the city of Dagupan in the Philippines, is the country's only first lady of Filipina origin. [8] [9] She authored several books on the culture, history and politics of East Timor, Aceh, Indonesia, the Philippines and other regions of Southeast Asia. | |
| Position vacant | April 17, 2008 | May 20, 2012 | José Ramos-Horta | José Ramos-Horta returned to office full-time following an assassination attempt in March 2008. He and his former wife, Ana Pessoa Pinto, had divorced before he became president. [6] | |
 | Isabel da Costa Ferreira | May 20, 2012 | May 20, 2017 | Taur Matan Ruak | [10] |
 | Cidália Lopes Nobre Mouzinho Guterres | May 20, 2017 | May 20, 2022 | Francisco Guterres | |
| Position vacant | May 20, 2022 | Present | José Ramos-Horta | José Ramos-Horta was reelected to office in the 2022 East Timorese presidential election. He and his former wife, Ana Pessoa Pinto, had divorced before he became president. [6] | |
José Alexandre "Xanana" Gusmão is an East Timorese politician. He has served as the 6th prime minister of East Timor since 2023, previously serving in that position from 2007 to 2015. A former rebel, he also served as East Timor's first president since its re-establishment of independence, from 2002 to 2007.
The political system in East Timor is a unitary semi-presidential representative democratic republic, whereby the Prime Minister of East Timor is the head of government and the President of East Timor functions as head of state. East Timor has a multi-party system. Executive power is exercised by the president and the government. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the National Parliament. The Judiciary is independent of the executive and the legislature. The East Timorese constitution was modelled on that of Portugal, with lesser power given to the president. The country is still in the process of building its administration and governmental institutions. The Economist Intelligence Unit rated East Timor a "flawed democracy" in 2022.
The Revolutionary Front for an Independent East Timor is a centre-left political party in East Timor. It presently holds 23 of 65 seats in the National Parliament. Fretilin formed the government in East Timor until its independence in 2002. It obtained the presidency in 2017 under Francisco Guterres but lost in the 2022 East Timorese presidential election.
Francisco Xavier do Amaral was an East Timorese politician. A founder of the Frente Revolucionária de Timor Leste Independente (Fretilin), Amaral was sworn in as the first President of East Timor when the country, then a Portuguese colony, made a unilateral declaration of independence on 28 November 1975. He was a member of the National Parliament for the Timorese Social Democratic Association from 2001 until his death in 2012. Amaral was also known as "Abo (Grandfather) Xavier", a term of endearment, by East Timorese.
The Timorese Democratic Union is a conservative political party in East Timor. It was the first party to be established in the country on May 11, 1974, following the Carnation Revolution in Portugal.
Presidential elections were held in East Timor in 2007. The first round on 9 April 2007 saw six of the eight candidates eliminated. The remaining two candidates, incumbent Prime Minister José Ramos-Horta and FRETILIN President Francisco Guterres, faced each other in a runoff election on 9 May 2007. Ramos-Horta won the second round with 69% of the vote.
Francisco Guterres, popularly known as Lú-Olo, is an East Timorese politician who served as 6th president of East Timor from 2017 to 2022. He is also the president of the political party Fretilin, and he was the first president of the National Parliament of East Timor from 2002 to 2007.
Norberto do Amaral is the Roman Catholic Bishop of Maliana, East Timor. He was appointed on 30 January 2010. Previously, he served as an assistant pastor and as a pastor, as Rector of the Diocesan Minor Seminary in the Diocese of Díli, and in other offices in the Catholic Church in East Timor.
Presidential elections were held in East Timor on 17 March 2012, with a second round on 16 April. Incumbent president José Ramos-Horta, who was eligible for a second and final term as president, announced that he would seek nomination to be a candidate in the election. The election was seen as a test for the "young democracy" in seeking to take control of its own security. Former military commander Taur Matan Ruak provisionally beat Francisco Guterres in a second round runoff.
Parliamentary elections were held in East Timor on 22 July 2017. 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.
Cidália Lopes Nobre Mouzinho Guterres is the wife of former president of East Timor Francisco Guterres and as such was First Lady of East Timor from 20 May 2017 to 20 May 2022. A native of the Atauro Island, in East Timor, she became the second wife of the Francisco Guterres on 4 May 2002 with whom she had three male children and one female. Before her marriage, Cidália Guterres was a leading member of the Organização Popular de Mulheres Timorense, the feminist organization of the FRETILIN party whose president was Francisco Guterres.
Early parliamentary elections were held in East Timor on 12 May 2018 after the National Parliament was dissolved by President Francisco Guterres on 26 January 2018.
The Centro Acção Social-Democrata Timorense, abbreviated as Centro ASDT or CASDT is a political party in Timor-Leste. Founded by its late first party president Gil da Costa A.N. Alves, he was the former Secretary General of the Associação Social-Democrata Timorense (ASDT) party. The party motto is “Justiça, Unidade, Solidaridade”.
Jorge da Conceição Teme is an East Timorese politician and diplomat. Initially, he was a member of the Fretilin political party, but he left that party in 2011 to join the Frenti-Mudança party. He has been Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation, East Timorese Ambassador to Australia, Secretary of State for the Region of Oecusse and Minister of State Administration.
José Agostinho Sequeira, also known by his nom de guerreSomotxo Matar Mimiraka, is an East Timorese politician and former guerilla, and a member of the Fretilin political party. In 2006–2007, he was Vice Minister of Interior, and in 2017–2018 he was Minister for Defence and Security. Since 2018, he has been a Member of the National Parliament.
António da Conceição, also known by his nom de guerreKalohan (transl. "Cloud"), is an East Timorese politician, and a member of the Democratic Party (PD). He has held several Ministries in the government, and as of 2021 was a Member of the National Parliament.
The Democratic Republic of East Timor, was a state that was unilaterally proclaimed on the territory of present-day East Timor on 28 November 1975 prior to the Indonesian invasion of East Timor nine days later on 7 December 1975.
Parliamentary elections were held in East Timor on 21 May 2023. The governing coalition going into the election was a four-party government of Fretilin, the People's Liberation Party (PLP), Kmanek Haburas Unidade Nasional Timor Oan (KHUNTO) and the Democratic Party (PD), whilst the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) was in opposition but held the presidency.