13 Facts About Francisco Guterres

Francisco Guterres is the president of the political party Fretilin, and he was the first president of the National Parliament of East Timor from 2002 to 2007.

Francisco Guterres contested the 2017 presidential election, and with the support of former prime minister Xanana Gusmao and the CNRT, was elected the 6th president of East Timor.

Francisco Guterres is a Roman Catholic and a former guerrilla fighter.

At an extraordinary conference of Fretilin in Sydney, Australia in 1998, Francisco Guterres was named general coordinator of the Council of Armed Resistance.

Francisco Guterres was elected to the Constituent Assembly in the August 2001 parliamentary election, and he was elected by the Constituent Assembly as its president; when East Timor gained its independence in May 2002, the Constituent Assembly was transformed into the National Parliament, with Francisco Guterres as its president.

Francisco Guterres was re-elected to parliament in the June 2007 parliamentary election as the first name on Fretilin's candidate list.

Francisco Guterres ran for President a second time in the 2012 presidential election as Fretilin's candidate.

Francisco Guterres won a plurality of votes in the first round, but was defeated in the second round by Taur Matan Ruak.

Francisco Guterres took office on 20 May 2017 as the first elected partisan president of East Timor.

In 2020, Francisco Guterres planned to resign and former president Xanana Gusmao would take office he reversed his decision to tackle the Coronavirus Pandemic.

Francisco Guterres started a coronavirus vaccination campaign in the summer of 2021, addressing the importance of the vaccine.

Francisco Guterres has generally received praise for his handling of the pandemic, with the number of COVID cases in the country significantly dropping after the campaign was launched.

Francisco Guterres ran for re-election in 2022, but was defeated in a landslide in the second round by Ramos-Horta.