Olinda Guterres

Olinda Guterres (born 1955) is a politician in East Timor. She has been a member of the National Parliament for the KHUNTO party since 2017.

Olinda Guterres
Olinda Guterres official portrait
Member of the National Parliament of East Timor
Assumed office
September 5, 2017
Personal details
Born1955 (age 67–68)
Uato-Missa, East Timor
Political partyKHUNTO

Early life and education

Olinda Guterres was born in the Baucau Municipality town of Uato-Missa in 1955.[1] She holds a bachelor's degree in Portuguese.[1]

Political career

Guterres first ran for national office in the 2001 East Timorese parliamentary election, as a member of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC), but she was not elected.[2] For several years she disputed leadership of the PDC with António Ximenes da Costa, which culminated in the Supreme Court declaring the Costa-led version of the party the official one in 2005.[3]

She ran again in the 2012 East Timorese parliamentary election, this time as a member of the Kmanek Haburas Unidade Nasional Timor Oan (KHUNTO) party, but the new party did not gain enough votes to enter Parliament.[1][4] However, her party passed the threshold in 2017, with Guterres becoming a member of the National Parliament of East Timor on September 5, 2017.[1] In early elections in 2018, she was reelected for a term ending in 2023.[1] As of 2020, she was vice president of the Parliament's Commission D, which deals with the economy and development.[1][5]

Positions
Olinda Guterres at the KHUNTO party office
Olinda Guterres at the KHUNTO party office in Dili, East Timor, in June 2012.

Portuguese language

Guterres has sought to bar the use of Portuguese from parliamentary debates, arguing that it is not widely understood in the country and therefore exclusionary. Banning it would "facilitate members' participation and the general population's comprehension and active involvement in all debates," she said in 2019.[6]

On June 17, 2020, Guterres was involved in a verbal and physical fight on the floor of the National Parliament with fellow legislator Maria Fernanda Lay, a member of the National Congress for Timorese Reconstruction (CNRT) party. Guterres criticized Lay for speaking Portuguese during a debate, rather than Tetum, which is more commonly spoken in the country.[7]

Lay responded that Portuguese is an official language of East Timor according to the Constitution. She also added that Guterres had made racist comments and that she had called her a china pirata ("Chinese pirate"). The argument turned physical, and the two had to be separated by other legislators.[7]

The Lusa News Agency reported that this encounter followed an incident the previous day in which Guterres had to be restrained by fellow legislators in order to prevent her from attacking another CNRT member of parliament, Vírgina Ana Belo.[7]

COVID-19 and immigration

In January 2021, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Guterres defended security forces "shooting to hurt" (but "not shooting to kill") those seeking to cross the border with Indonesia illegally, "so that they learn."[8]

References
  1. "Olinda Guterres". Parlamento Nacional de Timor-Leste (in Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  2. "Political Party/Candidate Lists" (PDF). Tais Timor. August 2001. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-02-02.
  3. "Claudio Ximenes: Olinda Guterres' PDC is Invalid". UNOTIL Daily Media Review. 2005-09-29. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  4. "Compendium of the 2012 Elections in Timor-Leste" (PDF). UNMIT. 2012-06-21. Retrieved 2021-12-30.
  5. "Eighth Constitutional Government / Governu Konstituisional VIII". The Timor-Leste Institute for Development Monitoring and Analysis. Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  6. Lusa (2019-01-22). "Deputada timorense quer excluir língua portuguesa do parlamento". Sábado (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  7. Lusa (2020-06-17). "Troca de agressões físicas no parlamento de Timor após discussão sobre uso do português". Diário de Notícias (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-12-31.
  8. Lusa (2021-01-27). "Covid-19. Deputada timorense defende disparar "para ferir" quem atravesse fronteira ilegalmente". Observador (in European Portuguese). Retrieved 2021-12-31.
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