Brussels, 03/09/2001 (Agence Europe) - The Belgian Presidency made the following statement on behalf of the European Union: "The European Union welcomes this historic moment for the East Timorese people, who have just taken part in the first democratic elections in their history. That crucial step paves the way for the establishment of political institutions for a new, democratic state. The EU is pleased to note the preliminary findings of its observer mission, reporting that elections to the East Timorese Constituent Assembly passed off calmly and peacefully on Thursday 30 August 2001. The EU congratulates the people of East Timor and their leaders, who have embarked upon a long independence process, now bringing its reward. The Union also applauds the United Nations, whose transitional administration of the territory enabled the process to be brought to fruition. The EU takes this opportunity to reiterate its full support for consolidation of the path to independence and would encourage East Timor's political representatives to follow the popular will freely expressed in these elections."
Positive report back by EU's Chief Observer in East Timor
The EU's Chief Observer from the EU Election Observation Mission in East Timor, Wolfgang Kreissl-Doerfler, German MEP in the Green group, has congratulated the "East Timorese people on the conduct of this historic election". In a press release outlining a summary of the Provisional Findings of the Mission, the MEP highlighted that the "overall atmosphere appears calm and suggests that the election has been conducted in a peaceful manner". "We have received no information of serious incidents or shortcomings relating to the conduct of the election", he said.
"The main issue of importance has been the late opening of the majority of Polling Stations observed. Our reports do suggest some examples of difficulties of management (queue control, etc) at some Polling Stations. We do not regard these reports as significantly detrimental to the election process" indicates Mr Kreissl-Doerfler's statement. "We would like to praise the IEC's prompt response to problems experienced during election day. We would also like to state that the relevant sectors of UNTAET have worked enormously hard to make this crucial election possible" announced the EU observers.
Most of the observers, along with Wolfgang Kreissl-Doerfler, will remain in East Timor until after the official announcement of the result on 10 September. The statement notes that there are over forty EU observers including the Belgian diplomat Luc Darras representing the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Carlos Costa Neves MEP (Portugal) for the EPP, Richard Howitt (UK) for the Party of European Socialists and Toine Manders (Netherlands) for the European Liberal Party. The mission has been in East Timor since the beginning of July to follow the pre-election campaign, and Short-term Observers have been in all 13 districts since 27 August.