Trabalhista declares to support Fretilin’s presidential candidate

Timornewsline, March 9, 2012 - President of Partido Trabalhista, Angela Freitas, announced today that she, her Party and supporters would join with Candidate, Francisco Guterres Lu- Olo, to help him win the March 17th Presidential election in the country. Ms. Freitas said she was invited by Lu-Olo to join his political campaigns following her failure to qualify as a Presidential Candidate earlier this month. She said her decision to join with the FRETILIN-backed Candidate was influenced by the late Francisco Xavier do Amaral. “At my last visit to the Dili Hospital to see him, Francisco Xavier do Amaral, asked me to do whatever it took to help the people of East Timor, even it is meant sacrificing my long standing principle of working alone as President of Trabalhista,” she said. Freitas also said she had sometimes strongly criticized Fretilin, but should leave that behind “Over the years I have sometimes been an outspoken critic of FRETILIN, but as the President of East Timor, Jose Ramos Horta, said recently “let bygones be bygones” and I agree”, she added. She said, “I now realize we, Trabalhista and FRETILIN, have to stop re-living what happened in the past and join together to provide a strong leadership for East Timor with brother Lu-Olo as President.”