Maria Fernanda Lay | |
---|---|
President of the National Parliament | |
Assumed office 22 June 2023 | |
Preceded by | Aniceto Guterres Lopes |
Member of the National Parliament of East Timor | |
Assumed office August 6,2007 | |
Personal details | |
Born | 1954 (age 68–69) Baucau,East Timor |
Political party | CNRT |
Maria Fernanda Lay (born 1954) is a politician in East Timor. She has been a member of the National Parliament of East Timor since 2007. In 2023,she was elected as president of the National Parliament,becoming the first woman to lead the body.
Maria Fernanda Lay was born in 1954 in Baucau,East Timor. [1] She holds a bachelor's degree from a telecommunications school in Bandung,Indonesia. [1]
While Indonesia still occupied East Timor,Lay worked as a manager at Timor Telecom. [2] She later worked as a project manager for the U.S. Agency for International Development. [3]
Lay subsequently pursued a political career as a member of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) party. [1] She first gained a seat in the National Parliament of East Timor in the 2007 elections,taking office on August 6,2007. [3] In her time in Parliament,she has served in leadership roles on various commissions. [1]
Since 2010,she has served as secretary of her national group at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries. She also led the body's Women's Network from 2010 to 2015. [1]
On June 17,2020,Lay made headlines for her involvement in a verbal and physical fight on the floor of the National Parliament with fellow legislator Olinda Guterres. After Lay spoke Portuguese during a debate,Guterres criticized her and argued she should instead have spoken in Tetum,a more commonly spoken language in East Timor. [4]
Lay pointed out that the Constitution designates Portuguese as an official language of East Timor. She criticized Guterres in turn for allegedly having made racist comments,saying that the rival lawmaker had called her a china pirata ("Chinese pirate"). The two began physically fighting,and they had to be separated by other legislators. [4]
On June 22,2023,she was elected president of the National Parliament by a vote of 45-0,with 19 abstentions and one blank ballot. [5] She is the first woman to be elected as speaker of the body. [5] On occasions when the national president is away on international diplomatic visits or otherwise absent,Lay will be the first woman to assume the functions of the presidency on a temporary basis. [6]
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.
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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 administered by the United Nations,but renamed itself to the National Parliament with the attaining of national independence on 20 May 2002.
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Aurélio Sérgio Cristóvão Guterres is an East Timorese academic and politician,and a member of the Fretilin political party. From September 2017 to June 2018,he was Minister for Foreign Affairs and Cooperation in the VII Constitutional Government of East Timor led by Mari Alkatiri.
JoséAgostinho 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.
Olinda Guterres is a politician in East Timor. She has been a member of the National Parliament for the KHUNTO party since 2017.
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.
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