Dear reader,
Have you voted?
If so, how? If it's raining or snowing, do you bother?
I'm 30 years old so I have not yet voted many times since I've been allowed to vote but the process has always been easy as I lived only 5 minutes from my polling station. I have to admit I have also taken voting for granted. I didn't live during the dictatorship, my parents did but I didn't. And my parents aren't very political people so we never had huge discussions at home about which party shoud win or not, we knew which party we followed and why, sometimes we weren't very happy with our leaders but that never led to any real arguments at home about politics although we do love politics. It doesn't help also that my grandfather is right-wing and I am left-wing as it doesn't leave much room for discussions with him either, but voting as always been something that you do, it's your right so you do it!
Here, the right to vote and the right to independence has been fought through many years of blood and tears. There isn't one family that wasn't affected by the war against Indonesia, every family has lost someone they loved. The Timorese people have fought for this right and they are proud to vote, they love to vote and they vote!
Saturday morning all the polling stations of Timor opened bright and early at 7am, people lined up ready with their election cards in hand to show their right to vote. They cast their ballots, they dipped their fingers in ink - it was interesting to see how some people were actually afraid of dipping their fingers in the pot, as if they're expecting the sensation to be scary! - and they smiled because they voted, because they have the right to choose their leaders, to choose their future.
The voting part was easy. The hard part came when you had to count and the hardest part came for us when we had to go to each and every one of the 68 polling centers in Bobonaro to pick up the ballot boxes containing all the ballots and the results for each polling station and bring them back to Maliana for tabulation. We had 40 cars for STAE - the only ones allowed to carry the ballot boxes (including the UNVs cars) - along with PNTL cars and UNPOL cars to escort each STAE car, and then we had CNE cars as well to monitor the process...we had A LOT of cars!
The polling stations closed at 3 in the afternoon, most of them had already finished by 1pm, everyone that could and wanted had already voted, they were just waiting for the official closing time. At the polling station I was monitoring in Bobonaro sub-district, Ilat-Laun, the elders held a dancing ceremony to celebrate the occasion, everyone was happy, it was a beautiful sight.
At 3pm everyone was called over to observe the count, the ballot boxes were open, the ballots spread out, arranged into neat piles awaiting for the count. And it started....if the rest of Timor followed what happened in Ilta-laun we wouldn't even need a second round! Ramos Horta, the incumbent, won by a wide majority with 438 votes against 168 to Lasama, 60 to Lu'Olo and 53 to TMR. I thought to myself, well this will be easy! By the time every vote had been counted it was already 5:30, we still had to go to 2 other polling centers to pick up their ballots, it was already starting to get dark and it had been raining on and off meaning the roads would be muddy and slippery, ie. dangerous.
By 6:30 we arrived at our second destination, Soilesu, where I asked what the result had been, Lasama had won there and Ramos Horta was not even close! Then we moved to Atuaben, the last polling center we were in charge of, Lasama won there again...Lasama had already won Bobonaro district back in 2007 so it was to be expected that he would carry the majority. By 7:30 we were on the road ready to leave for Maliana, I thought, great, we'll be back at headquarters by 9pm. Unfortunately, that was not to be...as we were driving, other cars started joining us, we had to stop on several occasions to wait for other cars and we were asked by other convoys to wait for them at the Lolotoe-Bobonaro junction. It was already pitch black, it had rained and it was cold! It was the first time I actually felt cold in Timor Leste! We waited for the convoy from Loloteo to join us, then we waited for the convoy from the inacessible areas to arrive - they took longer because STAE officials actually had to carry the ballot boxes to where the cars coundn't pass anymore. By the time the convoy was ready it was already 10:45 at night, I was dead tired, I had been driving all day but luckily by this time my colleague had taken the wheel. I was worried about the roads, we had already lost one UNPOL car in Atabae subdistrict - the road they were travelling on caved in and the car fell down a 1.2m drop! Luckily no one was hurt...this sub-district was of course the last to arrive at tabulation because the roads were simply not passable (and ps. this was the polling station I had been assigned to!!!! Good thing we were able to convince our coordinator to change the plan!).
Our convoy was composed of more than 30 cars, going downhill towards Maliana, all the lights on, it was a grand sight! Like a very colourful snake trying to reach its prey, very very slowly! We arrived at Maliana headquarters at a quarter to midnight, by that time we were only missing Atabae sub-district and one polling station from Balibo. The LCD screen was lit with the results so far, the STAE officials were working hard, recounting all the votes to make sure it was correct, the observers and candidate representatives were there, everyone was exhausted but everyone was smiling, it was glorious! We took a break from counting at 4am and then started up again at 9am. I, along with my STAE UNV colleagues, was there, counting each and every ballot, trying to speed the process along, helping when there was a doubt. It was truly amazing to be a part of something so special...You have to remember, this is the first time that the Timorese are doing the elections all by themselves! We are only there for support, we don't tell them what or how to do it, we only help them when they ask!
Some mistakes were made of course, but they worked out how to resolve them and when they did it was transparent through clear explanations to the observing public of what had happened and how they would solve it, again, they are allowed mistakes, to err is human but to learn from it is divine! We finished the count, after all had been said and argued, at 7pm on Sunday night, we clapped and laughed and hugged! By this time tabulation had been going on for 20 some hours!! The final 'Aktas' were packed into a ballot box with the results for Bobonaro district and were sent on their way to Dili with another convoy to join up with the national tabulation. We went home, beaten, battered, exhausted but happy, happy that we had witnessed such an important event in this country's history.
For this, it was all worth it, the back-breaking roads, the lost-in-translation arguments, the aching arms from lifting boxes and more boxes and the hours put in to organize the elections, it was all absolutely worth it!
By the time we went to sleep last night, Lu'olo and TMR were the two contenders for the second round. There's lot to be said about having these two particular candidates running against each other but I have written enough...this will be for another story.
I want to congratulate the people of Timor Leste, the elections ran peacefully, they have proven their worth and right to democracy and thank them for letting me be a part of it!
Have you voted?
If so, how? If it's raining or snowing, do you bother?
I'm 30 years old so I have not yet voted many times since I've been allowed to vote but the process has always been easy as I lived only 5 minutes from my polling station. I have to admit I have also taken voting for granted. I didn't live during the dictatorship, my parents did but I didn't. And my parents aren't very political people so we never had huge discussions at home about which party shoud win or not, we knew which party we followed and why, sometimes we weren't very happy with our leaders but that never led to any real arguments at home about politics although we do love politics. It doesn't help also that my grandfather is right-wing and I am left-wing as it doesn't leave much room for discussions with him either, but voting as always been something that you do, it's your right so you do it!
Here, the right to vote and the right to independence has been fought through many years of blood and tears. There isn't one family that wasn't affected by the war against Indonesia, every family has lost someone they loved. The Timorese people have fought for this right and they are proud to vote, they love to vote and they vote!
Saturday morning all the polling stations of Timor opened bright and early at 7am, people lined up ready with their election cards in hand to show their right to vote. They cast their ballots, they dipped their fingers in ink - it was interesting to see how some people were actually afraid of dipping their fingers in the pot, as if they're expecting the sensation to be scary! - and they smiled because they voted, because they have the right to choose their leaders, to choose their future.
The voting part was easy. The hard part came when you had to count and the hardest part came for us when we had to go to each and every one of the 68 polling centers in Bobonaro to pick up the ballot boxes containing all the ballots and the results for each polling station and bring them back to Maliana for tabulation. We had 40 cars for STAE - the only ones allowed to carry the ballot boxes (including the UNVs cars) - along with PNTL cars and UNPOL cars to escort each STAE car, and then we had CNE cars as well to monitor the process...we had A LOT of cars!
The polling stations closed at 3 in the afternoon, most of them had already finished by 1pm, everyone that could and wanted had already voted, they were just waiting for the official closing time. At the polling station I was monitoring in Bobonaro sub-district, Ilat-Laun, the elders held a dancing ceremony to celebrate the occasion, everyone was happy, it was a beautiful sight.
At 3pm everyone was called over to observe the count, the ballot boxes were open, the ballots spread out, arranged into neat piles awaiting for the count. And it started....if the rest of Timor followed what happened in Ilta-laun we wouldn't even need a second round! Ramos Horta, the incumbent, won by a wide majority with 438 votes against 168 to Lasama, 60 to Lu'Olo and 53 to TMR. I thought to myself, well this will be easy! By the time every vote had been counted it was already 5:30, we still had to go to 2 other polling centers to pick up their ballots, it was already starting to get dark and it had been raining on and off meaning the roads would be muddy and slippery, ie. dangerous.
By 6:30 we arrived at our second destination, Soilesu, where I asked what the result had been, Lasama had won there and Ramos Horta was not even close! Then we moved to Atuaben, the last polling center we were in charge of, Lasama won there again...Lasama had already won Bobonaro district back in 2007 so it was to be expected that he would carry the majority. By 7:30 we were on the road ready to leave for Maliana, I thought, great, we'll be back at headquarters by 9pm. Unfortunately, that was not to be...as we were driving, other cars started joining us, we had to stop on several occasions to wait for other cars and we were asked by other convoys to wait for them at the Lolotoe-Bobonaro junction. It was already pitch black, it had rained and it was cold! It was the first time I actually felt cold in Timor Leste! We waited for the convoy from Loloteo to join us, then we waited for the convoy from the inacessible areas to arrive - they took longer because STAE officials actually had to carry the ballot boxes to where the cars coundn't pass anymore. By the time the convoy was ready it was already 10:45 at night, I was dead tired, I had been driving all day but luckily by this time my colleague had taken the wheel. I was worried about the roads, we had already lost one UNPOL car in Atabae subdistrict - the road they were travelling on caved in and the car fell down a 1.2m drop! Luckily no one was hurt...this sub-district was of course the last to arrive at tabulation because the roads were simply not passable (and ps. this was the polling station I had been assigned to!!!! Good thing we were able to convince our coordinator to change the plan!).
Our convoy was composed of more than 30 cars, going downhill towards Maliana, all the lights on, it was a grand sight! Like a very colourful snake trying to reach its prey, very very slowly! We arrived at Maliana headquarters at a quarter to midnight, by that time we were only missing Atabae sub-district and one polling station from Balibo. The LCD screen was lit with the results so far, the STAE officials were working hard, recounting all the votes to make sure it was correct, the observers and candidate representatives were there, everyone was exhausted but everyone was smiling, it was glorious! We took a break from counting at 4am and then started up again at 9am. I, along with my STAE UNV colleagues, was there, counting each and every ballot, trying to speed the process along, helping when there was a doubt. It was truly amazing to be a part of something so special...You have to remember, this is the first time that the Timorese are doing the elections all by themselves! We are only there for support, we don't tell them what or how to do it, we only help them when they ask!
Some mistakes were made of course, but they worked out how to resolve them and when they did it was transparent through clear explanations to the observing public of what had happened and how they would solve it, again, they are allowed mistakes, to err is human but to learn from it is divine! We finished the count, after all had been said and argued, at 7pm on Sunday night, we clapped and laughed and hugged! By this time tabulation had been going on for 20 some hours!! The final 'Aktas' were packed into a ballot box with the results for Bobonaro district and were sent on their way to Dili with another convoy to join up with the national tabulation. We went home, beaten, battered, exhausted but happy, happy that we had witnessed such an important event in this country's history.
For this, it was all worth it, the back-breaking roads, the lost-in-translation arguments, the aching arms from lifting boxes and more boxes and the hours put in to organize the elections, it was all absolutely worth it!
By the time we went to sleep last night, Lu'olo and TMR were the two contenders for the second round. There's lot to be said about having these two particular candidates running against each other but I have written enough...this will be for another story.
I want to congratulate the people of Timor Leste, the elections ran peacefully, they have proven their worth and right to democracy and thank them for letting me be a part of it!
Very nicely written, Filipa! Reading your description and seeing your pictures is almost like ... being there!!! Maybe not, but definetely you gave a very emotional and positive description of the people of Timor Leste! Thank you for sharing!
ReplyDeleteAna
que bom que correu tudo bem e que estavas ai para testemunhar tudo isso!!!! Fantastica experiencia!!! Boa Filipa...ca continuamos a espera de mais noticias ;) beijinhos***
ReplyDeleteIt's always a pleasure reading you! Thanks for sharing in such vivid words. Take care, Stef
ReplyDelete