United Kingdom. Januário Gusmão wants to make “history” as mayor of Timor

“KI would like to make history as the first East Timor to be selected. This will be a source of pride for me, for the Timor community and for the Portuguese community in general. ”

Januario Gusmão, 38, is the Conservative candidate for city council. [‘council’] Bridgewater, in Somerset, southwest England, by constituency [‘ward’] From Eastover.

About 500 East Timorese live in the city, but the Portuguese community reaches 5,000 people in the area.

Born in the village of Guy Riri Fatumaga Baguio in Timor-Leste, he has been in the United Kingdom for nine years, where he came to work in a factory after studying languages ​​and international relations at the university’s Faculty of Arts. Of Porto.

He is currently a translator for Tetum, Indonesian and Spanish, and for three years was president of the Timor-Leste community in Bridgewater, which assists in updating immigration processes and documents.

“I have faith. It is not easy for a foreigner to run against the English, but I am a person who has done a lot of work for the community, I do it from my heart,” he assured.

The campaign is mainly on social media and door-to-door distribution of leaflets, including defending the Conservative Party’s policies currently in government, including restricting immigration.

“Immigrants can enter, but they must meet the requirements. The party wants to provide more opportunities for immigrants already living in the UK to learn English in search of work,” Guzmவோo stressed. Give security and more opportunities “.

An example of his case, he added, is that being a candidate is “a good chance” for him, “but for Timorites, they can” get the same chance “in the future.”

“Sometimes people think they’ll come to the UK for work, but no, the UK is a country with a lot of opportunities for those who know how to use it,” he said.

In addition to Januario Guzmo, Portuguese Diego Rodriguez, 32, is also the Conservative Party’s candidate for the East & Bowdrip constituency in Bridgewater.

Rodriguez, first elected by the Labor Party in 2015, is the first Portuguese ‘mayor’ in the United Kingdom in 2018, and the most experienced mayor of Portuguese descent, having served seven years in office.

In the UK, 4,360 seats will be up for grabs in 146 municipalities, 1,227 in 32 constituencies in Scotland and 1,200 in 22 municipalities in Wales.

Local elections in the UK are held almost every year, but in different municipalities or constituencies.

The Portuguese community in the United Kingdom is estimated to be about 400 thousand people, the fourth largest in Europe after Poland, Romania and Italy.

According to the British Home Office, 1,770 East Timorese have applied for residency in the country under post-Brexit EU citizenship registration, but the number could be higher if Portuguese citizenship is taken into account.

Also read: Parliament approves PR trips to Timor-Leste, London and Andorra

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