Timor-Leste adopted a mixed model of electoral management with two electoral bodies. The Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) is an organ of the Ministry of State Administration, organizing and conducting elections and the National Elections Commission (CNE) is a permanent body supervising the process.
Voter registration is done by STAE as follows;
- Voter registration procedure Registration of voters shall be compulsory, unofficial, personal and universal and shall be updated for each election (Art. 65.2 of the Constitution of Timor-Leste);
- Citizens, over 17 years old, with Timorese nationality, in terms of the Law no. 09/2002, and who live in the national territory, have the obligation to promote their own registration on the electoral registration database, to verify if they are registered, and to ask to rectify their own data in case of error or omission;
- The actualization on the electoral registration database can be done unofficially, based on the information given by STAE and by the official organs of identification;
- Electoral registration is conducted all over the country;
- The place of registration is the same of the voter residence, at district, sub-district or suco level;
- Electoral registration and updates are organised and conducted by STAE, and CNE will supervise the process;
- STAE will announce the voter registration update, within 10 days of a notice being posted in public places and on the media;
- The notice should inform:
- Who should be registered;
- Those who have to proceed to registration update;
- Necessary documents for registration;
- Time for registration updating;
- Places and schedule of the registration (Article no. 2,7,8 and 12 of Regulation no. 45/STAE/II/08);
Source :
Democratic Governance Support Unit (UNMIT), Compendium of the 2012 Elections in Timor-Leste as of 19 June, 2012, UNMIT and UNDP, p. 98-99,
http://unmit.unmissions.org/LinkClick.aspx?fileticket=Mf-EpVd4M2g%3D&tabid=12073&language=en-US.