Over 378,000 register for East Timor ballot

Over 378,000 register for East Timor ballot

DILI, East Timor (JP): The United Nations Mission in East
Timor (UNAMET) said on Monday the registration process for the
Aug. 30 self-determination vote in the territory was a success
with almost all projected voters signed up.

UNAMET spokesman David Wimhurst said a total of 378,302 people
had registered with poll officials as of Saturday, the 16th day
of the 20-day registration period.

"We are on target with the numbers. Given our initial
estimates, and given that we are now three days away from the end
of the process, I think we can say that it has been a successful
exercise," Wimhurst said at a regular media briefing.

An estimated 400,000 East Timorese are expected to go to the
polls on Aug. 30, where they will decide whether to accept or
reject Jakarta's offer of autonomy under Indonesia.

Wimhurst said additional registration officials had been
deployed across the provincial capital of Dili and to Maliana and
the East Timor enclave Ambeno. The move was in anticipation of
the many internally displaced persons facing problems registering
for the vote.

A UN High Commissioner for Refugees representative here, Luis
Varese, said some 70,000 people had fled their villages as
violence flared up in the run-up to the vote.

In a statement released on Monday, the UNHCR said both
prointegration militia groups and their proindependence
counterparts were responsible for the exodus.

It added that the displaced persons lacked adequate food,
medical care, shelter and protection. Since January, some 100
refugees have died of various illnesses and malnutrition.

The UNHCR emergency program in the troubled province will
initially run for six months. The mission includes assisting the
displaced people to return to their own villages, so that they
can register and vote there.

A six-day appeal period will follow the registration stage
before campaigning starts on Aug. 11 and runs through Aug. 27. A
two-day cooling-off period will precede the vote.

Wimhurst also expressed his concern at the ongoing violence.
In the latest, which took place in Balide subdistrict here on
Sunday, bank employee, Angelino Amaral, was shot dead by alleged
prointegration militias.

UNAMET civilian police officers met with local police on
Monday to discuss the shooting.

Antara reported from Ambeno that many East Timorese had
complained about the slow registration process.

Coordinator of East Timor descendants in East Nusa Tenggara
Efer Manafe said only 10 people had registered with UNAMET staff.
The registration site is a state elementary school building in
Oesilo.

Efer said 5,000 people across the enclave were eligible to
vote on Aug. 30.

"The slow-paced registration is caused by the way UNAMET staff
serve prospective voters. The poll officials tend to exaggerate
small mistakes," Efer said, adding that the behavior had caused
people to waste a half an hour completing registration
procedures.

Another complaint was made to UNAMET from the leader of the
prointegration East Timor People's Front (BRTT), Fransisco Lopes
da Cruz. He said on Monday the mission's efforts to introduce the
concept of wide-ranging autonomy was not effective.

"Many people living in villages still do not understand what
autonomy is. UNAMET needs alternative media to socialize the
government's offer," da Cruz said after a reconciliation campaign
here.

He said the concept of wide-ranging autonomy had not been
thoroughly understood by locals, because UNAMET had employed
interpreters who did not understand the essence of the package.

In the Bali capital of Denpasar, at one of the registration
centers outside East Timor, head of the International
Organization for Migration (IOM) there, Mike Montagano, said he
was pleased with the way the registration process was running.

"There has been a constant number of East Timorese turning up
in the last few days. The turnout figure is not big, but there
have always been people registering themselves here," he said.

Chief of Udayana Military Command overseeing Bali, Nusa
Tenggara and East Timor, Maj. Gen. Adam Damiri, has estimated the
number of East Timorese residing in Bali who are eligible to vote
on Aug. 30 at about 350. (33/49/amd)