In the next day or so, Indonesia’s Abu Bakar Bashir, the so-called ‘spiritual head’ of Jema’ah Islamiya which launched the 2002 Bali bombing which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians, will be released from prison. He will be released under a presidential pardon by President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo. Unsurprisingly, Bashir’s impending release has generate much […]
Tag Archives: elections
Timor-Leste started 2018 in political chaos and ended the year with a return to the confrontational politics of the past. What appeared to be the cooperation between key parties CNRT and Fretilin in the ‘government of national unity’ between 2015-17 was shattered following the 2017 elections. The political stalemate that arose under the 2017 minority […]
Malcolm Turnbull has brought the question of his leadership to a head by calling for a party room vote which, as expected, he won, if narrowly. However, the vote has shown that there is open division within the Liberal Party’s parliamentary ranks. The PM has just been challenged by one of his most senior ministers, […]
Pakistan’s elections have been run and won … by the Pakistan Armed Forces. The adage that it takes more than elections to have democracy is ringing true in what many are calling Pakistan’s ‘silent coup’. Former test cricketer and serial political candidate Imran Khan’s Pakistan Movement for Justice (Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf ,or PTI) was on track […]
Following a global trend against the status quo, Mexicans have overwhelmingly voted in favour of a populist as their new president. The election of former Mexico City mayor, leftist Andrés Manuel López Obrador, with 53% of vote in a five cornered contest, represents an overwhelming rejection of Mexico’s slide into profound violence and corruption. In […]
Australia Timor-Leste Election Observer Mission 2018 (ATLEOM 2018) STATEMENT ON ELECTORAL PROCESS The Australia Timor-Leste Election Observer Mission (ATLEOM) congratulates Timor-Leste’s National Elections Commission (CNE) and Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) for their sound organisation of the 2018 parliamentary election. As in the past, the poll presented significant logistical and organisational challenges, […]
As East Timor went to elections this year, the country was the most peaceful and united it had been in its short history. The CNRT-Fretilin government of national inclusion had functioned well, it appeared that the ‘Generation of ‘75’ exemplified by Xanana Gusmao, was stepping back from politics and, with the initialing of an agreement […]
Blighted by anti-colonial war, revolution, a genocidal regime and then a civil war, it was hoped that the United Nations intervention in Cambodia a quarter of a century ago would result in a stable multi-party democracy. In recent days, however, Cambodia’s long slide back towards naked dictatorship has become all but complete. Last weekend, Cambodia’s […]
Damien Kingsbury and Michael Maley The Australia Timor-Leste Election Observer Mission (ATLEOM) wishes to congratulate the people of Timor-Leste on a peaceful and successful 2017 parliamentary election. The ATLEOM project also congratulates the Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration (STAE) and the National Electoral Commission (CNE) on conducting a successful election. The election marks a deepening […]
With 83 per cent of the votes counted in East Timor’s elections, it appears that five of 21 parties have gained enough votes to be represented in the next parliament, with Fretilin and CNRT strengthening their dominance of the country’s political landscape. Early indications of the allocation of seats based on the party list vote […]