Bahasa Indonesia Headlines ­ Tuesday 7 August 2001

1. As the election nears, ballot papers get printed in Darwin 
2. Indonesia ends permit for rupiahs to enter Timor Lorosae

1. As the election nears, ballot papers get printed in Darwin (Suara Timor Lorosae, front page headline)

The Independent Electoral Cmmission (IEC) mandated by the United Nations to oversee the 30 August election has sent the voter list to the neighbouring Australian city of Darwin for ballot papers to be printed.

The total number of ballot papers to be printed is 409, 019, which corresponds to the total number of registered voters.

Meanwhile, 50,000 posters with sample pictures of the ballot papers have been pasted at polling stations together with the political parties candidates’ list. According to the IEC, there will be a total of 814 polling stations in all the 13 districts.

“Our focus in these last weeks will be on finalizing the final voters’ list. The final list has already been sent to Darwin in order for the ballot papers to be printed,” said IEC head Carlos Valenzuela at a press conference yesterday.

Carlos said in order to facilitate matters, the IEC will carry out the following:

(1) The mobile electoral team will also visit the sucos and aldeias with the district voters’ list in order to brief voters on their polling stations;

(2) From 23 August there will be an IEC official at all voting centers to answer questions from voters on their polling stations;

(3) An intensive information campaign would be carried out to remind voters on the importance of keeping the voter registration cards in a safe place till election day.

According to Carlos all the polling stations would be manned by international and local staff recruited by the United Nations. He said 5,000 local staff had been recruited to work in the district polling stations.

2. Indonesia ends permit for rupiahs to enter Timor Lorosae (Suara Timor Lorosae, Page 4 lead)

Jakarta has stopped issuing special permits for the export and import of Indonesian rupiahs to and from the country in accordance with an 26 April UNTAET Executive Order to stop the entry and use of the currency in Timor Lorosae.

The Head of the Indonesian Mission in Timor Lorosae Kristio Wahyono said this in a press release yesterday.

“In accordance with the UNTAET Executive Order dated 26 April which was agreed to on 8 June between the Deputy Governor of the Bank of Indonesia Miranda S Gultom and Director of UNTAET’s Liaison Office in Jakarta Lakhan Mehrotra, Jakarta has hereby stopped issuing permits for the export or import of rupiahs from Timor Lorosae,” said the press release.

According to the press release a person will only be allowed to carry 5 million rupiahs in and out of the country.

On 20 August, all payments in Timor Lorosae will be made in US dollars ­ the official currency of Timor Lorosae.

On that date all other currencies ­ Australian dollars or Indonesian rupiahs ­ will be disallowed from use in transactions.

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