DILI, 01 july 2021 (TATOLI) – The Minister of State Administration (MAE), Miguel Pereira de Carvalho urged local leaders, particularly the chief of the villages to cooperate with Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) to identify those young people who are currently eligible to vote and those voters that had passed away.
Carvalho said it is important for the STAE to cooperate with the chief villages as they were the ones who know those voters who had passed away and those young people who are over 16 in the villages.
“I call on the chief of the villages to inform the Electoral Registration Team regarding those voters who are no longer live in the villages and also to identify their youths whose over 16,” Carvalho made the comments during the launching ceremony of the Voters Registration and Electoral Database Update for the 2022 Presidential Election, at Timor-Leste’s National Elections Commission (CNE) hall, in Dili, today.
He said there were 9 months left for Timor-Leste to participate in the presidential election next year, saying STAE and CNE have 6 months to work on the voter registration and electoral database update: “Therefore the STAE and CNE need to accelerate the registration process of the new voters and electoral database update.”
“According to the official data of STAE, around 830.000 had been registered as voters. I believe that this number would increase because based on the data gathered from the Staple Food Program, Timor-Leste’s population had increased to 1.5 million,” said Carvalho.
Carvalho added in Timor-Leste, many people still don’t cast their vote, therefore, in the next election, the government would establish voting centers closer to the communities to make sure that everyone can fully participate in the next presidential election: “To realize this, I urge the chief villages to identify those places that easy for communities to get access and casting their votes.”
“Lastly, I call on the local leaders across the country to inform their community members who are over 16 to visit the nearest voters’ registration office to register themselves to participate in the next election,” said Carvalho.
At the same place, the Director-General of the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE), Acilino Manuel Branco, said currently, STAE strengthens its work by adding resources both equipment and human resources to accelerate the registration and identification of the voters in the Administrative Posts across the country.
“Next week, the voters’ registration and identification process will commence in the municipalities and the administrative posts. So, the new voters, particularly the young ones will register themselves and the old voters will also renew or update their electoral cards. Apart from the municipal and administrative posts, we also have prepared to do the registration in those rural areas that community members having difficulty with accessing to Voters’ Registration Centers.
He said in august the Voters Registration Teams would depart to Australia, England, Portugal, South Korea, and other countries to register and update the electoral cards of those Timorese people who were currently living in those countries.
Journalist: Filomeno Martins
Editor: Rafy Belo
