Absentee Voting in Timor-Leste

On April 22, 2007, the Philippine Embassy office here in Timor-Leste through our Ambassador Farita Aguilucho-Ong and her staff held an information dissemination meeting on the process of absentee voting in TL for Filipinos working and residing here. The meeting was held at Turismo Hotel & Restaurant attended by the officers and advisers of AFET, several wardens and a few invited Filipinos in Dili.

It was shared that our COMELEC in Manila (Philippines) has already sent as early as March the ballots including the instructions through postal mail to individual registered voters in TL. This means, that each registered & eligible voter in TL will receive a mailed ballot through the postal office here. It will be noted however, that the current postal system in TL does not deliver individual mails to respective addresses/houses but it is rather picked up in the main post office at ACAIT Building in Licedere.

As a matter of response, the Philippine Embassy thru the Consul will regularly visit the main post office to check mails for Filipinos with mails for the absentee voting and the Embassy will inform those voters who have mails thru SMS, thru their wardens or thru any other form of communication to pick up their mails personally from the post office.

As soon as each registered voter receives his/her ballot from the mail, he/she should follow all the instructions given in the mail for absentee voting and then he/she will submit the completed ballot at the Embassy on or before May 14 at 4pm for counting and canvassing of votes and ballots. Deadline of casting of the ballots will be at 4pm (Dili time) of May 14, 2007.

Only those Filipinos registered voters in Dili are eligible to vote for the absentee voting. The Philippine Embassy has initiated a new registration of Filipino voters last year. The deadline of which was October 2006. Filipinos who were able to vote during the 2004 Elections via absentee voting are not necessarily eligible to vote for the May 2007 elections unless they have transferred their registration from Jakarta to Dili. The previous registered voters were all registered under the Philippine Embassy-Jakarta office. For confirmation, Filipinos who were able to vote during the 2004 elections are encouraged to check the registered voters’ list with the Philippine Embassy here in Dili.

For further information about the absentee voting for the coming elections in May 2007, please inquire from or call the Philippine Embassy Office tel no. 3322347 or Consul Ariz Convalecer mobile no. 7299569.