Monitoring of the Presidential Election in Timor-Leste (Preliminary Assessment by the Japanese Election Observation Mission)

May 11, 2007

On May 11 (Fri), the Election Observation Mission of the Government of Japan, which was dispatched for the presidential election (presidential runoff) in Timor-Leste, released its preliminary assessment based on the observation carried out on May 9 (Wed). (See attached for full text)

The assessment states, among others matters, that the mission found that the preparation of the polling stations, polling and counting procedures had been conducted in compliance with the election rules, except for some technical problems, that the voting had been carried out in a peaceful manner as it had been also at the first vote in April, and that the conduct of the election had been improved in some respects such as clarifying the procedure at the polling and counting stations.

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