Lindsay Murdoch, Dili – Indonesia's top officials in East Timor are preparing to reject the outcome of Monday's ballot on the territory's future, claiming the way the United Nations will count the votes is flawed.
Mr F.Lopes Da Cruz, Jakarta's ambassador-at-large for East Timor, said today the UN's plans to transport the votes to a central location in the capital, Dili, were not democratic or transparent.
"There is definitely a possibility to reject the ballot," said Mr Da Cruz, a long-term campaigner against East Timor separating from Indonesia.
As UN officials, diplomats and independent analysts predict a win for independence supporters, Mr Da Cruz stepped up the pressure on the UN to agree to count the votes at 200 polling centres across the territory.
"If you try to bring the ballot boxes to Dili, by road or helicopter, anything could happen to them on the way," he said. "It is not fair. If they are counted at the polling booth there will be many people who will be able to see what is happening."
Mr Da Cruz is the second senior Indonesian official to criticise the counting system, despite the UN's blunt rejection of any review.
After Mr Dino Patti Djalal, the spokesman for Indonesia's taskforce in Dili, last week demanded the UN provide a breakdown of how various districts voted, the UN's spokesman, Mr David Wimhurst, insisted: "There will be no change." The stand was confirmed today by another UN spokesman in Dili, Mr Hiro Ueki.
UN officials said UN civilian police would escort the votes to Dili. They said the priority was to ensure voters could be satisfied that no reprisals would be taken against them, whichever way they voted. "The vote must be secret," a UN official said. "There will be no compromise on this point."
But Mr Da Cruz said the security of the vote was more important than possible reprisals afterwards. "The Indonesian police are responsible for protecting people from reprisals," he said.
The controversy over the count comes amid renewed criticism of Indonesia for its refusal or inability to stop the intimidation of voters ahead of the ballot that gives 450,000 East Timorese a choice between autonomy and independence.
In New York the UN Security Council issued a statement voicing "strong concern at the continuing campaign of intimidation and violence in East Timor". It deplored "recent acts of violence and intimidation against UN staff".
Pro-Jakarta militias have been responsible for most of the intimidation and violence leading up to the vote, according to human rights groups.
The biggest group of independent observers in East Timor today joined a growing number of countries and groups calling for international troops, preferably armed, to be sent to the territory to maintain security after the ballot.
The International Federation for East Timor – Observer Project, in a letter to the UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, accused the Indonesian military of undermining the ballot to such an extent that it threw into question the legitimacy of the vote. It called on the Indonesian police to disarm and disband all militia and paramilitary groups.