JAKARTA/PERTH -- East Timor will go to the polls on Saturday to choose a new president out of 16 candidates, the most ever competing for the future of the resource-rich country, with a large number of female hopefuls and increased representation from rural and working-class backgrounds.
Saturday's presidential election will be the country's fifth since independence in 2002. The former Portuguese colony declared independence in 1975 but was annexed by Indonesia, led by then-President Suharto whose dictatorship collapsed in 1998.
