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Yangon, Myanmar: Former East Timor president and revolutionary leader Taur Matan Ruak has been announced as the country’s new Prime Minister five weeks after the Alliance of Progress and Change coalition won a majority of 43 in the nation’s 65 seat legislature.
Taur Matan Ruak then president of East Timor, with then Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd in 2013
Photo: Andrew Mears
The new government will be sworn in by Francisco “Lu-Olo” Guterres, the nation’s largely ceremonial President, ending 11 months of gridlock. It follows the inconclusive July 2017 election and the fresh poll on May 10.
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Xanana Gusmao, 73, who led the alliance to victory over arch rivals Fretilin, was originally expected to return as prime minister. But he has been named “minister adviser to prime minister” instead, sealing the reconciliation between the two men. Gusmao and Ruak, also known as Jose Maria Vasconcelos, 43, were once brothers-in-arms but fell out during Gusmao’s 2012-2015 prime ministership while Ruak was president. Gusmao eventually stepped aside.
Brothers in arms, from left: then Falintil vice commander Taur Matan Ruak, “Xanana” Gusmao and Jose Ramos Horta in 1999.
Photo: AP/File
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