Excerpt from Ace Project
Subsequent Timorese government decisions on the future shape of election administration were significantly shaped by article 65, no. 6 of the country’s constitution, which states that ‘Supervision of voters’ registration and electoral acts shall be incumbent upon an independent organ, the competences, composition, organization and functioning of which shall be established by law.’
Implicit in this notion of ‘supervision’ was that the country would adopt a mixed model of electoral management with two electoral bodies: one that organized and conducted elections, and one that supervised the process. The first of those bodies, the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (Secretariado Técnico de Administração Eleitoral, STAE), was created by government decree in July 2003 as an organ of the Ministry of State Administration, replacing, but also incorporating the staff of the advisory IEC left behind by the UN. Two separate supervisory bodies, each designated the National Elections Commission (Comissão Nacional de Eleições, CNE), have been created. The first was set up only for the purposes of the local representative elections of 2004–05, and was disbanded after fulfilling its mandate. The second, and permanent, CNE was appointed in early 2007.
While STAE and CNE are the primary EMBs, the Court of Appeal (pending the appointment of a Supreme Court of Justice) has a number of electoral roles to play, especially in relation to the registration of political parties, the receipt and validation of presidential nominations, and the final certification of election results.
Maley, M. (n.d.). Electoral Management. Retrieved from Ace Project: http://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/em/electoral-management-case-studies/timor-leste-election-administration