East Timor's Independent Electoral Commission has rejected more than 70 potential candidates for the August 30 constituent assembly elections. The final lists of party-backed and independent candidates obtained Tuesday by Lusa indicate that the Commission rejected 27 national and 46 district-level candidates. Additionally, independent candidate Augusto Mendonga was rejected because his name was also included on the election list of a political party.

Contrary to the list released last week, only 968 candidates will contest the national seats, five of whom are independents, while 96 will run for the district seats, 11 of them independents. East Timorese voters will on August 30 elect the 88 members of a constituent assembly whose main duty will be to draw up the future national constitution. Seventy-five of the seats will be awarded based on proportional results of nationwide voting for party lists or individual candidates, while one candidate from each of East Timor's 13 districts will be elected for the remaining seats.

Campaigning began last Sunday, with sixteen parties eligible to present candidates for the ballot.

The Commission's ruling means that no party was able to ensure that all its candidates were accepted, nor was any party able to present candidates in all 13 district-level contests.

Commission spokesman Jorge Gusman told Lusa Tuesday that the candidate rejections were mainly due to a failure to submit documents on time. "In some cases they presented themselves as candidates for a district other than the one where they said they lived", Gusman said, adding that some of the other cases involved minors or candidates who did not register during the voter registration process that ended on June 23.

At the national level, only the PPT, Fretilin, PST, Kota, PTT, PL and Apodeti were able to ensure the eligibility of all candidates on their respective lists, while at the district level, only the PDM and PTT saw none of their candidates rejected.