Lawmakers in East Timor have voted to end a law providing lifetime pensions for parliamentarians, following student-led demonstrations against lavish perks for public officials in one of Southeast Asia’s poorest countries.

Former members of parliament (MPs) and some public officials were entitled under a 2006 law to a lifetime pension equivalent to their salary.

But, on Friday, 62 MPs unanimously passed a law scrapping their lifetime pensions, as well as for former presidents, prime ministers and cabinet ministers.

“To all university students, your demands have been fulfilled. Please stop the demonstrations,” Olinda Guterres, an MP from the Khunto party, said after the vote.

The law will now be sent to East Timor’s President Jose Ramos Horta – an independence hero and Nobel Peace Pri

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