East Timor: 16 parties meet deadline to nominate candidates for election, UN says

Sixteen political parties have nominated candidates to run in the August elections for East Timor's Constituent Assembly, meeting the deadline set for noon local time on Wednesday, UNTAET, the United Nations Transitional Administration in the territory, said today.

During the elections to be held on 30 August, the voters will elect 88 members of the Assembly, of whom 13 will be district candidates representing each of East Timor's districts, and the remaining 75 will be allocated to parties based on a nation-wide proportional representation list.

All of the parties nominated national candidates, UNTAET said, with Parentil and the PNT being the only two parties that had not submitted district candidate nominations.

As for party registration, the UN mission said that the final three parties to register with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) ahead of last Sunday's deadline - Apodeti, Parentil and Partai Liberal -- were currently in the 14-day inspection period, but presented candidates in conformity with IEC regulations.