The presidential front runner in East Timor's election is likely to continue the current government's course when it comes to ongoing squabbles with Australia.
The Timorese go to the polls on Monday for the first round of voting.
It's the first election since a United Nations peacekeeping mission departed in 2012 after a bout of political violence in 2006.
Fretilin Party leader Francisco "Lu-Olo" Guterres is the hot favourite to win in an eight-candidate race.
He has the crucial backing of revered independence hero Xanana Gusmao.
Mr Gusmao, a former resistance fighter during Indonesia's occupation of East Timor, is the country's first president and fourth prime minister.
Mr Guterres was expected to address a campaign rally of 100,000 to 150,000 people in Dili on Friday afternoon before the campaign blackout period kicks in.
His spokesman Harold Menezes Moucho told AAP Fretilin was confident of gaining enough support to avoid a second round run-off vote in April.
He said Mr Guterres backed the current government's foreign policy direction when it comes to relations with Australia and Indonesia.
Australia and the East Timor government are taking part in conciliation in The Hague over the ongoing maritime boundary dispute.
East Timor notified Australia in January that it wished to tear up a 2006 treaty which split 50-50 future revenue of the Greater Sunrise oil and gas reserves in the Timor Sea.
The reserve contains gas and oil worth an estimated $50 billion but how the share of the spoils will be divided up must now be revisited.
Mr Guterres also supports the government's desire for a pipeline for processing resources on its shores, rather than a floating platform as was previously proposed by Woodside Petroleum, or a pipeline to Darwin.
Deakin University professor Damien Kingsbury, who is in Dili as an election observer, said there were no guarantees Mr Guterres would claim victory on Monday.
"It's going to be close. I expect him to do very well but the question is whether ... that's going to be enough to get him across the line in the first round," Prof Kingsbury told AAP.
He said the East Timor government has massive budget challenges to grapple with in coming years and needed to urgently diversify its economy.
Oil revenue makes up 90 per cent of East Timor's budget and roughly 80 per cent of the country's national income is derived from oil.
Oil from the Bayu-Undan field in the joint petroleum development area will be depleted by about 2022 and East Timor's petroleum wealth fund could be dry by 2025-2028.
Some experts predict that if Greater Sunrise is not developed soon, East Timor could become a failed state or aid dependent.
