Suco Elections

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Suco Elections

On Friday 9 October hundreds of thousands of Timorese citizens were expected to vote for Community Leadership Elections in each of the 442 Sucos, from 7am to 15pm.

Last Community Leadership Elections took place in 2004 and 2005. Today, the candidates are standing for positions as suco chiefs and members of suco council, for a six years mandate.

These elections are important as Suco Council is very important to resolve disputes and find solutions to community problems which are often solved through community leaders.

A total of 589 694 registered voters in Timor-Leste were expected to cast their vote, in all 442 sucos. This election was done at suco level, meaning that a total of 442 different ballot papers were printed. The total number of candidates list was 1,168 and the total number of candidates were 26,781 (including alternates).

The Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) is the body responsible for planning and organizing elections in Timor-Leste, to realized the last Community Leadership Elections in 2004 and 2005 took one year to finished because was phased, meaning that a small team from STAE was doing elections district by district and took one year to finalized. Today, on the 9 October 2009, STAE achieved a very ambitious and difficult goal, and proved be capable to realized elections, simultaneously, in one single day, in all 13 districts, in all 442 sucos.

Today, STAE allowed all 589 694 voters to cast their vote, simultaneously, in one single day, with a total of 546 polling centers, 748 polling stations and a total of 3,740 polling staff supervised by 546 brigades were assigned in each district.

These staff was supported by a total 236 vehicle, distributed among the 13 districts.

All polling stations were reported to be operational at 7am and some minor incidents were reported but nothing to compromise the process. All polling stations closed at 15pm. The counting process started after end of voting process.

All the process were witness by representatives of the candidates, a total of 151 national observers and 18 international observers who were present in all the country to ensure that these elections were free and fair.

The security and safe of all electoral process was only possible due to the presence of 1899 PNTL.