Polls have closed in East Timor's presidential election, dominated by concerns over the young nation's stability.

More than 835,000 of the country's 1.3 million people were registered to vote on Saturday.

Incumbent leader Francisco "Lu Olo" Guterres faced stiff competition from Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta and 14 other candidates.

"I am confident that I will win the election again," Guterres told reporters after casting his vote in Dili, the capital.

"I call on people to accept whatever the result, and I am ready to work with whoever wins this election," he added.

Ramos-Horta has promised voters a change of course. "We have voted based on our own wish for a new president who is able to maintain stability, to develop our economy and to change the current situation," he said.

The winner of the election will assume power May 20, on the 20th anniversary of East Timor's independence from Indonesia, which had invaded the country, a former Portuguese colony, in 1975.

Protracted political crisis and economic uncertainty

East Timor's brief democratic history has been rocky, with leaders facing widespread poverty, unemployment and corruption. Its economy relies on offshore oil revenues that are currently shrinking.

Under the current political system, the president appoints a government and has the power to veto ministers or dissolve parliament.

In 2018, Guterres refused to swear in some ministers from the National Congress of the Reconstruction of East Timor (CNRT), the party that backs Ramos-Horta.

So the government was composed of ministers from two smaller parties, while several portfolios remain vacant.

CNRT has accused Guterres and Fretilin of acting unconstitutionally, while Freitlin his party said Horta was not fit to be president, accusing him of causing a deadly crisis when he was prime minister in the early 2000's.

Huge challenges ahead

In 2020  Prime Minister Taur Matan Ruak threatened to quit after the government repeatedly failed to pass a budget.

His government has since lacked an annual budget, relying on monthly payments from its sovereign fund savings, the Petroleum Fund.

East Timor depends on revenues from its offshore oil and gas reserves, accounting for 90% of its gross domestic product. 

But experts say the sovereign fund, worth nearly $19 billion (€17 billion), could run out within a decade as the government's annual withdrawals are now higher than its investment returns.

Early election results were expected late on Saturday. If no candidate wins an outright majority, the two most-voted contenders will move on to a run-off on April 19.

lo/jcg (AP, Reuters)