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suggestions, we can provide them. We tend to get a pretty good
coverage of the country, and we get a good sampling of how the
election process has gone.
The observers file reports based on a template I give them,
and then I compile that information and write a report on the
election and say whether it met the basic criteria for being free
and fair, whether there were technical issues, what the electoral
commissioner in East Timor might do better next time, and so on.
Can your reports have an impact on current or future elections?
Absolutely. The reports we write are taken quite seriously for a
couple of reasons. Since 1999, we have consistently had the largest
presence of observers for any ballot in East Timor. So for all of the
ballots we’ve attended, we’ve always been the largest international
group. There’s a very large domestic church-based group that also
act as observers and they do a great job, but because they’re local,
they’re not seen as having quite the critical distance that we have.
The international groups include the Carter Center, the European
Union, the International Republican Institute, the Japanese
government, a Filipino organisation called ANFREL (Asian Network
for Free Elections) and us. But we are consistently the largest group,
often double the size of the next nearest group.
The reports we write are quite detailed. We give an overarching
view of the election and then go into the specifics. For example,
party agents are allowed to be in polling stations to watch the
process and sometimes they don’t do things according to the
rules. So we’ve written recommendations about how they might be
better controlled, or things they might be asked not to do, or ways
which can improve their role in the process.
Also, in 2012, we noted that people were taking smartphones
into polling booths and taking photographs of their ballots and
then showing those photographs to people outside who would
pay them. So they were being paid to vote in a particular way. Now,
it wasn’t many people, not enough to change election results, but
clearly that was a breach of process which we identified, and as a
consequence the electoral commission in East Timor banned the
presence of mobile phones in polling stations.
workforce
on again this year on the day of the elections, and we issued a
statement very quickly saying that all of our preliminary reports
had shown that the process was, in fact, going according to
plan, and that disputing the process was a political ploy with
no basis in fact. And if there was evidence of manipulation, it
should be presented to the Court of Appeals as per constitutional
requirements.
Of course, there was no evidence, so it didn’t ever proceed, but
the outcome of that last election this year in East Timor was that
the Alliance of Change for Progress – the parliamentary majority
alliance combination of three parties in coalition – won 34 of the
65 seats in the parliament.
Why is it important that Australia is involved in monitoring the
political process of Timor-Leste?
The reason why there are observers is because in many countries
the process can be rorted, and we’re there to give confidence
to the locals that the process won’t be rorted, and if it is, we will
call it out.
This is what we did in 1999 – and that was an incredibly difficult
environment. Like I said, people were being intimidated and
murdered. People had their homes burned. There were illegal
voters enrolled. People were being paid to vote. There were all
sorts of things going on, and we reported on all of them.
Are there any strategic, geopolitical reasons why stability in Timor-
Leste matters to Australia?
It’s incredibly important to Australia for strategic and diplomatic
reasons. We don’t want an unstable country on our doorstep.
There was instability in East Timor in 2006. As a consequence,
Australia headed a peacekeeping force that went into the country
to stabilise the situation. We don’t want that to happen again.
Now, I’m not suggesting that election observers have anything
to do with that. It’s not our role to ensure that a country is stable
or not, but we are there to support as best we can the democratic
political process and to make sure it works as well as it can.
How do you juggle these activities with your academic work?
How free and fair were the recent elections?
The process itself was great. East Timor has an excellent electoral
commission. They’re technically very skilled, able and adept.
And they function in a difficult environment. East Timor is a
very rugged country with poor roads, poor infrastructure and
often very remote polling stations. So they get out the electoral
materials to even the most remote polling stations in a timely
manner, and the training provided to staff is very good. We’ve
been increasingly impressed by the quality of the process in East
Timor. It would stand up against any developing country in the
world and even most developed countries in terms of the quality
of the organisation.
One political leader did however complain previously about the
process being subverted in some cases so that the result wasn’t
an accurate reflection of the vote. We disputed that at the time,
because from our research the process was exactly as it was said
to be, and what we discovered was that this politician was making
these claims because, with a slight change in the vote, his party
would have been given the first opportunity to form government.
Now, that’s just politics, and obviously politicians from time
to time will try it on. Unfortunately, that politician also tried it
Some of my research has been on East Timor. I’ve written one book
and edited three others on the country, and I guess I’ll be doing
more in the future. And I also write articles on East Timor, but partly
it’s just a general commitment.
In universities, we have three categories of work: teaching,
research and service. Service usually means doing something for
the university in a managerial or organisational role, but it can also
mean community service, so working in the community in areas
that are related to your research and teaching in the university.
Election monitoring falls under the heading of service, so the
university’s quite flexible about allowing me to do it.
It does add to my work. It’s certainly a demanding exercise
logistically, but sometimes you have a lot of balls in the air and
you’ve got to be able to juggle them. I roped in some friends a
while ago when all this was going on and I had a few balls in the
air – I was finishing a book to a deadline, organising observers for
elections, managing a master’s degree, overseeing the creation
of a new master’s program, and moving house. There was
probably a moment or two where I thought I was going to have a
nervous breakdown, but it all worked out, so I guess all’s well that
ends well. ■
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