#east-timor

#east-timor

Protests erupted in East Timor's capital Dili after a budget item, approved last year, assigned $4.2m to buy Toyota Prado SUVs for each of East Timor's 65 members of parliament, at a cost of $61,500 per vehicle. The plan triggered widespread anger in a nation where more than 40 percent of the population lives in poverty, according to World Bank statistics. Thousands of demonstrators took to the streets on September 15 demanding that parliamentarians vote to cancel the plan.