E.Timor to Hold First Elections on August 30: U.N.

East Timor, currently administered by the United Nations, is scheduled to hold its first elections on August 30, the U.N. announced Friday.

U.N. administrator Siergio Vieira de Mello said an 88-member constituent assembly will be elected to draft a constitution in a period of 90 days, according to a U.N. spokesman.

The regulation on the elections, approved by the National Council on Monday and signed by Vieira de Mello on Friday, encourages the equal participation of men and women at all stages of the electoral and constitutional process, Vieira de Mello said.

East Timor, with an area of 14,874 square kilometers and a population of 800,000, broke away with Indonesia in the wake of a U.N.-sponsored self-determination ballot in August 1999, which resulted in favor of independence.

Violence followed the ballot, prompting the U.N. to send peacekeeping troops there. The U.N. Transitional Administration in East Timor (UNTAET) was established two months later to help the territory transit to independence.

The transition process is expected to be completed by the end of this year.

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