Dili, October 27^th, 2020 – The National Parliament approved, this Tuesday, in a plenary session attended by 43 deputies, the Head of State’s request on the 7^th State of Emergency extension, with 42 votes in favour, 0 votes against, and 0 abstentions.

In his speech, His Excellency the Prime Minister, Taur Matan Ruak said that, according to the legal regime in force in Timor-Leste, in a calamity situation like the current one, only through the State of Emergency can the citizens’ rights be restricted.

“In accordance with our legal regime, these measures can only be implemented rigorously in our society if we implement the State of Emergency, based on the public calamity situation. That is why today, the Government humbly asks the National Parliament to authorize His Excellency the President of the Republic to renew the State of Emergency for another month, after the one’s in force finishes”, explained the Head of Government.

The Head of Government expressed his satisfaction because Timor-Leste is one of the about 20 countries that, so far, have not registered deaths caused by COVID-19. This success happens because the Timorese Government has been taking very strict preventive measures and recognized that this success is a collective success of the society and not only of the Government.

“Until now, this disease already caused one million deaths and more than 43 million infected people worldwide, from Asia to Oceania, America, Europe, and Africa. Only about 20 countries do not report any case of death. Fortunately, this group also includes Timor-Leste. Of the 30 cases that were recorded in Timor-Leste, 29 have already recovered and there have been no deaths. This is our people and our nation’s collective achievement. It is not an achievement of the Government, but it is a collective achievement of all of us. And we only achieved this result because we invested heavily in preventive measures, namely in controlling the movement of people and goods at land, sea, and air borders, in strict quarantine for people entering the country, in order to identify and isolate the imported cases, not contaminating the community, and in the care with personal hygiene and social distance, according to the risks and threats that the evolution of the disease presents”, he stressed.

Thus, after the confirmation vote, the Head of Government thanked the support of the National Parliament, which come from all the benches, and affirmed that the Government is determined to fight against this public calamity, even with the existing difficulties and limitations, because it doesn’t want that this disease comes to interrupt the citizens’ lives.

With this vote’s confirmation, the Head of State will declare, for the seventh time, the State of Emergency, coming into force on November 4^th, 2020, after the current State of Emergency ends on November 3^rd, 2020. END/M-PMO.