Introduction

Elections for the President of the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste will take place on 9 April 2007. Following an invitation from the Foreign Minister, the European Comission has established an European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) for the duration of the electoral process. The Chief Observer is Mr. Javier POMÉS RUIZ ( Spain), Member of the European Parliament.

The mandate of the EU EOM is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the electoral process in accordance with international principles for genuine democratic elections.

Based in Dili, the EU EOM was opened on 15 March. The core team of the mission consists of Luis Martinez Betanzos, Deputy Chief Observer (Spain); Rebecca Cox, Legal and Electoral Expert (UK); Carlo Pappalardo, Observer Coordination (Italy); Miguel Arranz, Operational Expert (Belgium); Juan Manuel Gil, Security Expert (Spain); and Paulo Nogueira, Media and Press Expert (Portugal).

On 21 March 28 long term observers (LTOs) arrived in Dili for two days of briefing and training. On 24 March the LTOs were deployed to the 13 districts in teams of two to undertake a regional assessment of the technical and political aspects of the electoral process. A total of 16 EU member states are represented on the EU EOM, and two LTOs are from Switzerland.

A delegation of Members of the European Parliament will join the mission days before election day to observe the voting and counting process.

The EU EOM to Timor-Leste will remain in the country until the completion and finalization of the electoral process.