30 August 2001

Dili, East Timor: Today at 7 a.m., teams of Timorese polling staff and their UN Volunteer partners opened 248 polling centres throughout East Timor. It is expected that before the closure of the centres at 4 p.m., more than 400,000 Timorese men and women will have cast their ballot to elect 88 representatives who will, in turn, form a Constituent Assembly.

At 6 a.m., Geanino Popovici, a UN Volunteer district electoral officer from Romania, arrived at a school building in Komoro, a bustling neighborhood of East Timor's capital Dili. The school will serve today as one of the territory's 248 polling centres.

While putting out the ballot boxes and organizing the polling set up with his Timorese colleagues, Popovici is confident. "I hope that at the end of the day we will have achieved our task in East Timor," he said.

"It is clear that East Timorese are willing to vote and are willing to have the democracy through voting for their option," he said as residents lined up to vote. He is one of 284 UN Volunteers attached to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of the United Nations Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).

"The UN Volunteers have been essential in all the elections I have been involved in," said Carlos Valenzuela, the UN's Chief Electoral Officer. "They are the ones who organize and conduct the elections at the local level along with the East Timorese staff they have trained."

The total of all UN Volunteers in East Timor currently exceeds 900, making it the largest operation of the United Nations Volunteers (UNV) in both size and scope in the programme's 30-year history. Serving with UNTAET, they are working within more than 160 functional categories under 40 different sections or units.

"Today's the big day that makes all the work in Bonn and here over the past year and a half worth it," said Kevin Gilroy, UNV Coordinator in East Timor explained.

"We see the pride in the smiles of thousands of Timorese exercising the right to determine their own future," he added. "At the same time, we have hundreds of equally proud and happy UN Volunteers seeing the results of their outstanding work. And it's peaceful. So that's as good as it gets."

At 8:30 a.m. a large crowd has already covered Komoro school's front yard. While running from one polling room to another, Popovici said: "We had some technical problems but we solved them one by one. Now it starts -- I'm tired and happy."

East Timorese seem not to complain about this delay. One of the persons lined up in one of several long queues is Bosko Soares. "My family, myself and the people you can see are here to prepare the future of East Timor."

Later in the afternoon, after the polling centres close, all ballot boxes will be transported to one of the territory's 13 district capitals where they will remain overnight under the custody of UN Civilian Police (CIVPOL). The counting of votes will start tomorrow and the results on a district level should be known within days.

The ballots will then be transported to the Dili counting headquarters where the national counts will be calculated. The final results are to be announced not later than 10 September. By 15 September, reflecting the final results, those elected to the new Constituent Assembly will have 90 days to write and adopt a constitution for an independent and democratic East Timor.

UN Volunteers were here exactly two years ago when on 30 August 1999, the majority of East Timorese voted for independence from Indonesia.

Carina Perelli, Director of the Electoral Assistance Division of the UN's Department of Political Affairs in New York, commended the role of UN Volunteers in East Timor elections. "Without the UN Volunteers, these elections would have not occurred," Perelli said. "As in many previous UN sponsored electoral missions, they again are demonstrating their deep commitment and expertise."