Elections in Timor-Leste: A fighter bows out IT WAS expected, but still came as a shock. On March 19th the president of the tiny half-island state of Timor-Leste, José Ramos-Horta, conceded defeat in his attempt to win a second term of office. In the first round of voting for the largely ceremonial post of president, Mr Ramos-Horta (pictured, right, in an earlier age) picked up just 18% of the votes. Francisco Guterres, of the opposition Fretilin party, won about 29% of the first-round vote, and the former armed forces chief, José Maria Vasconcelos - known by his nom de guerre, Taur Matan Ruak - won 25%. The two men go through to a run-off election in mid-April with Mr Vasconcelos the favourite to win. The result could spell the end of the political career of a hero of Timor-Leste's quarter-century independence struggle against Indonesia. Whereas today's prime minister, Xanana Gusmão, fought a hidden guerrilla war and was then imprisoned by the Indonesian government, Mr Ramos-Horta spent more time in exile, fighting to keep the Timorese people in the spotlight after the Indonesian invasion of 1975. He shared the Nobel peace prize in 1996 for his work. After Timor-Leste formally declared independence in 2002, Mr Ramos-Horta served as foreign minister and prime minister, before winning the presidency in 2007. The cohesion of the liberation movement shattered in 2006 when part of the army mutinied. Two years later a band of rebel soldiers tried to assassinate both the prime minister and the president. Mr Gusmão escaped unharmed but Mr Ramos-Horta was shot twice in the abdomen while jogging near his house on the outskirts of Dili. He spent two months in an Australian hospital. Mr Ramos-Horta used the presidency as a bully pulpit, notably to warn Mr Gusmão's government about blowing too much of the country's precious oil revenues. He alienated some in the ruling party, who backed Mr Vasconcelos instead. With no party machine to get his message out, Mr Ramos-Horta relied on his name and a little gentle campaigning to see him through. But Timor-Leste, it seems, has moved on.