Lastly, there should be a voter’s list broken down by polling station with special provisions for IDPs in case they are still displaced for the next election.

In the law, civil registration exists under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice, including provision for an identity card, but this has never been implemented. STAE has the field personnel to carry out and maintain a registration process.

In future, checks should be made against the voter register database before a person obtains a new or replacement voter’s card, in order to try and prevent duplicate cards from being issued.

A new system of polling staff selection should be considered, prioritising previous electoral experience and literacy and numeric skills. It is common in many countries for school teachers to form the bulk of polling staff. This is apparently not possible in Timor because of restrictions on public officials being polling staff. This rule could be relaxed in the case of teachers. This process should be under the direct supervision of the CNE.

The CNE’s decisions are required by law to be publicised, and this needs to happen in every case. It would also be helpful to publish the minutes of their meetings, and to allow party representatives to attend their meetings, without voice or vote.

The two electoral bodies have to be fully functional all the time, maintaining a basic skeleton of staff at head quarters and district level, as elections can happen at any time.

A standard model used in many countries would be for the CNE to be responsible for taking all policy decisions, and for STAE to be the implementing body. Clarifying this issue would reduce conflict and speed up processes. In any case, deadlines before the election day need to be provided by which key decisions should be taken, and beyond which regulations cannot be approved.

Capacity building for STAE and CNE should be strengthened with mutual visits, exchange of information and transfer of know-how with Portugal and Australia (being the countries which have the closest donor relations with on Timor-Leste) and membership in regional electoral authorities.

The CNE Commissioners should have specific portfolios. For instance, there could be focal points for donor relations, relations with the Parliamentary Sub-Committee mentioned above, relations with observers, and so on.

The appointment of secretariat staff for the CNE needs to be carried out very carefully and in strict compliance with criteria of impartiality and merit, given its importance as an independent institution. So far UN staff have been completing these tasks. The secretariat should include a translation unit.

The EU EOM recommends that the CNE make publicly available more information about the complaints received and how they are resolved. For the presidential and parliamentary elections, only general statistics were available, without more details. Although there was an improvement in the parliamentary elections with a regular bulletin being available on the CNE’s website, only classification of complaints was available, sometimes –but not always- with their resolution. This should be developed for future elections and should provide substantive details.

Candidates and parties’ agreements committing them for a fair campaigning and the avoidance of violence should be enforceable. Furthermore, codes of conduct should be enshrined in the electoral laws, rather than be signed before each electoral period.

Clear guidelines should be provided by the CNE on the details that it needs from candidates in relation to monitoring their accounts, one of CNE’s tasks according to the law. General requirements were specified in the Campaign Regulation, but specific details were not given. These are needed if such provisions are to be enforced equitably and properly.

The Campaign Regulation prohibited political appointees and public officials from participating in campaigning during their official functions, but was frequently violated. Either the law needs to be amended to allow such people to campaign or the law should distinguish among positions of different levels or their compliance with the law needs to be made clear (for example, by providing evidence to the CNE of their being on leave and acting outside official functions).

The election laws need to be amended to provide enforcement powers to the CNE. These would not include the power to deal with criminal offences, which can only be dealt with by the judicial system. CNE’s powers could include issuing administrative sanctions, such as are held by election authorities around the world. Alternatively, these powers could be held by a separate independent election complaints commission. Examples of the types of powers that the CNE could have include:
- To view and to obtain copies of any documents or material held electronically by STAE or by any other government body concerned with administering the elections;
- To seek court orders requiring any organisation to comply with its legal obligations in relation to the elections;
- To issue administrative fines to candidates, parties, media outlets;
- To suspend from campaigning or from broadcasting for a certain period those candidates, parties or coalitions who violate the electoral laws and regulations;
- To remove candidates from who commit serious violations of the laws; full procedurals guaranties and right to appeal must be given to all candidates, the law must clearly stipulate each of the siuations when this removal will be legally possible (this is a controversial power, as it can damage the election authority’s perceived impartiality; it may be preferable for another body, such as the courts, or an independent election complaints commission, to have this power);
- To revoke the accreditation of an observer or party agent who violates the laws;
- To recommend or order the disciplining of electoral staff who commit irregularities. Another option would be for the CNE to publicise more widely the letters that it writes to violators (cartas de repreensão or avisos), so that the public and the media become aware, and this would help to apply moral pressure.

The respective roles of STAE and CNE in making regulations and codes of conduct need to be clarified in the law in order to avoid disputes and delays

For future elections, the legal framework, including all regulations and codes of conduct, should be in place well before the election day. Any amendments to the law should be made after a consultation process with stakeholders. Late amendments to the electoral law should not be made, in particular, controversial provisions. There should be public consultation and discussion before draft laws are introduced to parliament. Presidential and parliamentary election laws should be uniform in their provisions, particularly on counting. It is preferable to have one electoral law with separate chapters for presidential and parliamentary elections. There should be a Sub-Committee in charge of following the parliamentary discussions on electoral legislation and reforms.

Further measures to include physically disabled and the elderly and in the electoral process are necessary to meet the commitments of the Convention on the Right of Persons with Disabilities of 2007 to which Sierra Leone is a signatory.

Political parties should be targeted through gender sensitisation programmes and should establish effective policies to facilitate participation of female politicians and candidate nomination in all elections.

State authorities should take concrete steps to implement commitments in favour of increased participation of women in public life. As a first step, the authorities should adopt into the national legal framework all the provisions of CEDAW.

The Government should ensure access for journalists and the media to public information in order for journalists to report on policy making decisions and provide greater transparency and accountability in government.

The registration of political party owned radio stations should be reviewed as to whether such ownership of electronic media complies with international standards and the Code of Practice of the IMC, as they are explicitly excluded according to Article 1 (c & d), section 3 of the Code and international best practice.

More refinement and legal certainty should be developed for the provision of free airtime for candidates and parties on electronic media for party political broadcasts that clearly establishes the amount of airtime each political party is entitled to during the campaign period. The responsible body for guaranteeing the respect for these provisions should also be clarified.

The NEC in close cooperation with civil society organisations needs to strengthen its civic and voter education efforts to enhance awareness of all citizens about the principles of representative democracy and voter and citizen rights.

The NEC should conduct a sound, transparent and inclusive delineation exercise of ward constituency boundaries in time for the local government elections to ensure that the boundaries properly represent population density.