With Wednesday passing as the final deadline for East Timorese to challenge the list of proposed candidates for the upcoming elections, the United Nations transitional administration today said that all political parties and independent candidates had been officially registered.

In all, 16 East Timorese political parties and 17 national and district independent candidates have registered with the UN transitional administration's Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for the 30 August elections.

Overall, nearly 1,000 East Timorese are now officially registered to run for an 88-member Constituent Assembly, which will comprise 75 national seats and 13 district seats. The Assembly will have 90 days to write and adopt a Constitution for the soon-to-be-independent territory, which is currently run by the UN Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET).