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Press Release
Council of Ministers Meeting of 13th February 2018
The Government met in the Government Palace, in Dili, and approved the text regarding the agreement to delimit the maritime borders between the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste and Australia, to be signed next March in New York.
The Council of Ministers approved the proposal to amend Government Decree No. 1/2018, of January 12th, on the budget execution in a duodecimal regime, presented by the Minister of Planning and Finance, Rui Augusto Gomes. The proposed legislation aims to amend the rules on budgetary changes during the duodecimal scheme that result from the Budget and Financial Management Law and the Government Decree on Budgetary Execution for 2017, where both are subject to the imposed duodecimal limit assigned to each entity.
The Council of Ministers approved, with amendments, the proposed Decree-Law that sets the value of the public subsidy to be granted by the State for electoral campaign, to individual political parties and coalitions, presented by the Minister of State Administration, Valentim Ximenes. The calculation of the total subsidy amount will be done based on the total number of votes obtained by the political parties, in accordance with the Court decision that validates the election, proclaiming the electoral results.
The Minister of State Administration presented a proposal, to the Council of Ministers, for a Government Resolution on the acquisition of election equipment and materials for the legislative elections to be held in 2018. This resolution aims to ensure the organization and realization of the National Parliament electoral process through the acquisition of electoral equipment and materials that ensure the process to receive political party registrations, training activities for election officials, and ensure the electoral suffrage or ballot operations are carried out duly. The Government Resolution proposal was approved by the Council of Ministers.
The Government approved the proposal for a Government Decree, submitted by the Minister of State Administration, regarding the amendment of Government Decrees No. 19/2017 and 21/2017 on polling stations organization and functioning and voting procedures, vote count and tabulation of the results in-country and abroad. The submitted amendments foresee that the polling station secretary, in the presence of the political party representatives, should assess whether the accompanying person was chosen freely by the voter to accompany him while exercising his right to vote.
Finally, the Minister of State Administration presented the Government Resolution proposal regarding the update of voter registration abroad for the election of the National Parliament to be held on May 12th, 2018. This diploma seeks to ensure the necessary support for the census commissions to exercise their competencies and to promote the registration of Timorese citizens in the diaspora during the census for these early elections. The resolution was approved after the introduction of a few amendments. ENDS