Nobel Peace Prize laureate Jose Ramos-Horta appears headed for victory in East Timor's presidential elections, officials said Thursday.

East Timor's Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta, shown in June 2006, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996.East Timor's Prime Minister Jose Ramos Horta, shown in June 2006, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1996.
(Associated Press/Firdia Lisanwati)
Ramos-Horta has won almost 73 per cent of the votes in Wednesday's election, with 90 per cent of the polls counted, said electoral commission spokesperson Maria Sarmento.

Francisco (Lu-Olo) Guterres, the head of the country's largest party, Fretilin, was Ramos-Horta's opponent in the second-round runoff election.

"I am ready to be president now, and I will make good on promises to resolve the crisis and refugee problem," Ramos-Horta said Thursday, declining to declare victory until final results are released, expected on Friday.

United Nations representative Atul Khare said the vote was peaceful and free of intimidation.

Currently the prime minister, Ramos-Horta had been favoured to win after the first round of voting last month failed to produce a clear winner among the eight candidates.

East TimorEast Timor
(CBC)
Voter turnout was estimated at roughly 80 per cent.

Appointed prime minister last summer, Ramos-Horta won the 1996 Peace Prize for championing East Timor's resistance struggle against Indonesian rule.

The tiny island nation has struggled with poverty since winning independence in 1999.

Despite sizable offshore oil and gas deposits, nearly half of East Timor's work force is unemployed, about 60 per cent of children under five are malnourished, and tens of thousands of people displaced last year remain in tent camps.

With files from the Associated Press