The Wait Continues...

A UNMIT media release (14.04.07) has confirmed that the final results for the presidential elections will not be ready by Monday as originally announced. The statement says that the CNE* “requires more time than originally allotted to complete the national tabulation.”

With all the discussion of counting, I have decided to do some ‘nuts and bolts’ about the counting process and then write a bit about the implications of this delay.

The counting process breaks down into three levels: polling station, district and national. Polling stations are found within polling centers (often classrooms within a school). Each station comes equipped with ballots, ballot boxes, etc. and is staffed by a five-person team from STAE.* Each team has a president; a identification verification officer; a ballot paper controller; a ballot box controller; and a queue controller.

Following the counting, the president fills out the acta or official tally sheet for his or her station. The number of blank, void, cancelled, reclaimed and valid votes are recorded along with the numbers on the ballot box seals and the total number of ballots. These actas form the foundation of the whole counting process, and observers should be making note of whether or not the correct numbers are written down.

Figures from these master documents are compiled at the district level. District totals are then sent to the National Tabulation Center in Dili. According to the electoral law (PDFs of the three elections laws are available through IFES):

Within seventy-two hours of receiving the district tabulation minutes, CNE shall proceed to the national tabulation by verifying the district tabulation minutes and deciding definitively on the ballot papers considered null and subject to protests forwarded to it, including the complaints filed pursuant to item 4 of Article 43.

So this is where we are stalled right now. I do not have any information on whether the CNE is going back to the actas, counting ballots, or just needs more time with the district totals.

No matter what they are doing, this delay is not great news.

The run-off is just three weeks away, and the parliamentary elections are also rushing towards us with breakneck speed. President Gusmão announced the date for the parliamentary election only two days after the presidential poll and they will take place on 30 June 2007. Legally the earliest the election could have been was 28 June.

By setting the date, Gusmão got the clock ticking on coalition building between parties (must be completed within 20 days of the announcement) and on the presentation of candidates (w/in 30 days). These are complicated processes and the parties will run out of time if they wait until the presidential election is settled.

All three elections have now come into play.


* STAE (Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration) covers the technical side of the elections, for example the printing and distribution of ballots. The CNE (National Electoral Commission) oversees STAE and the counting. It has been suggested that in the future CNE should have a hand in determining the dates for the elections.

Photo: Top - Church and UN cars near the polling center in Dare. Bottom - Timorese police violating the presidential election law by sitting within 25m of the polling center (Art. 35).