April 10th, 2007
Election Day is over! In my sub-district of Bobanaro things went great! It was extremely hectic over the last week. It all started last Monday with the packing of the election materials. Up to the night before we delivered the election materials, April 8th, the Technical Secretariat of Election Administration (STAE) was adding materials to the list to be sent. This meant we could not seal the boxes right up to the point when we put the boxes on the truck in our convoy. I had to oversee the packing of all the boxes in our district, Bobanaro, which then are sent to the six sub-districts, Atabe, Balibo, Maliana, Lolotoe, Cailaco, and Bobanaro. The largest of these sub-districts is Bobanaro which was my area of responsibility, which has about 19,000 voters divided among 18 Sucos or villages.
The national staff that I was to supervise packing the election material was great! With 18 of them, you have to really stay sharp if you are to catch any mistakes. If they missed some non-sensitive materials that could be handled at the polling station but if sensitive materials were missed, that could be disastrous at that polling station. They were all eager to help, so much so that when the packing of materials began they were throwing things in so quickly you were never to sure if they put two of some items in and none of others. In the end it was great, with 136 boxes to pack they only missed one non-sensitive item (a roll of toilet paper that is used to wipe off excess ink after they dip their finger) , which was discovered in our quality control line.
On the morning of the 8th I set out to my sub-district with my convoy of 10 vehicles. This was after a lot of confusion getting all the polling center supervisors and national police (PNTL) and election materials packed. UNPOL provided three vehicles, Electoral provided three vehicles, and STAE provided four vehicles. We left Maliana and were only 3 km from base before the first STAE vehicle broke down. It was a mini bus full of PNTL officers and polling center supervisors. We relocated them in the back of two pick ups and were off again. We made it to the sub-district capital Bobanaro (Yes, the district is Bobanaro, the sub-district is Bobanaro, and the capital of the sub-district is also Bobanaro!) around noon and we still had a long day ahead of us to deliver all the materials. The distances are not so great but the road conditions are terrible. For example, the furthest Suco or village I have is Lour, which is only 40 km from the sub-district capital but takes about 2.5 hours to get there. Once in the sub-district capital the vehicle to Lour also broke down. They had sent a replacement vehicle for the mini bus that broke down on the way, but the time it arrived it too had also broke down. I had to have the Lour delivery team wait till 5 before another replacement would show up and it is not safe to travel back in the dark, so the UNPOL escort had to camp overnight in Lour. The rest of us divided into two groups and began delivering the materials to the other Sucos. Things went well from this point on with the exception of two flat tires on my UNPOL escort vehicle! By 7 pm we had everything delivered and I was on my home for an early morning on Election Day.
The polling centers opened at 7 a.m. and I wanted to check on two polling centers by 6 a.m. The materials had to be stored in the PNTL office in Bobanaro as the voting centers had no place secured to store the materials overnight. Some of the polling centers are old schools or town halls which had been destroyed in previous years and by any standards not suitable for this sort of activities but the Timorese don’t seem to mind. They are in most cases missing parts of the roof, no windows and even parts of the walls have been destroyed. Almost all polling centers were opened on time. The polling center in the sub district was guarded by 20 heavily armed Pakistani Military. I was discussing with the commander that they should remain 25 meters from the polling center as this was a rule established by STAE. Of course they can enter the center in the event of trouble but imagine my surprise when he asked me what level of force was he authorized to use in the event of trouble! I am not sure why he expected me to know and I wouldn’t have any idea how to answer that. I just told him that we all would have to use our common sense and hope that there was no trouble. Things remained very calm and the voters came all day in steady stream. By 10:00 am I had decided to check on some other polling centers and when I arrived in Ilat-laun at 11 am, they had only 7 ballots left of 950 with about 300 people waiting to vote. Ilat-laun is probably one of the nicest villages in the entire district. About 100 people were doing this traditional dance and the singing was amazing! The village is located on the side of a mountain with a terrific view with many of the straw thatched roofs. Because of its location and altitude the temperature is cooler and a relief from the normal 32 to 34 degree temperatures. I didn’t have much time to enjoy the view though. In most of the sub-district there are no radios or cell communications to contact the STAE office and have them send more ballots to me. So I had to drive back to the sub-district office to get communications. Within an hour I had more ballots from Maliana and was on my way back to Ilat-laun to deliver the ballots. On the way to Ilat-laun, I met the UNPOL who told me that in Carabau a number of voters were trying to use a voter card with no serial numbers. After I dropped off the ballots I was off to Carabau to find out that they had let them vote anyway. Every voter had to dip their index finger in ink which lasts for about 2 weeks. This ink was ordered especially for this election with the highest concentration of silver nitrate used. The idea for this was that if there was a problem with security in a polling station, and then those people could have a chance to vote one week later in the same location and the ink would prevent those that did vote from voting again.
After Carabau, I went to Leber where I viewed the closing of the polling center, gathered up the materials, and after collecting materials at two more polling centers, headed back to Bobanaro where all the groups in my convoy were to meet up before coming back to Maliana. I was the first group to get back to Bobanaro and the plan was that the first back would collect the three polling centers in Bobanaro. The first two were collected without incidence. At the third polling center while we leaving, the UNPOL vehicle fell into a hole and got stuck. This was a Land Cruiser which holds 12 people and was needed badly. We had to transport 28 polling center presiding officers and polling center supervisors.
At about 9 pm, the last of the convoy had gathered and I was able to have another UNPOL pull the stuck Land Cruiser out. After getting all the presiding officers and supervisors a seat in a vehicle, we headed back to Maliana. It is still unclear if there will be a runoff and it will take another place but we have heard that parliamentary elections will be in late June
separate compound and their unit is totally supported by their own country. They have brought every thing with them and the UN only provides them with food and fuel. They have their own mechanics, electricians, plumbers, cooks, and even barber! They have even offered me a Punjabi, which I am really excited about and can't wait to wear it at home. I had mentioned in my earlier post that they were acting as our security team in Bobanaro and I was very impressed at the level of professionalism and the conduct they displayed.
separate compound and their unit is totally supported by their own country. They have brought every thing with them and the UN only provides them with food and fuel. They have their own mechanics, electricians, plumbers, cooks, and even barber! They have even offered me a Punjabi, which I am really excited about and can't wait to wear it at home. I had mentioned in my earlier post that they were acting as our security team in Bobanaro and I was very impressed at the level of professionalism and the conduct they displayed.
This is the District Office where the National STAE for the Bobanaro district is located. The picture was taken on the morning before election day, just before they were loaded into 30 different vehicles for the six sub-districts.