27/10/2008 - Election training ground for Timorese
By EMILY WATKINS


The weekend's shire elections were used as training for East Timorese voting officials.

The team has been taking training in Darwin for the past few days, and observed the shire elections in motion.

The 13 district co-ordinators will oversee East Timor's first municipal elections next year.

They went to the Ludmilla polling booth to watch it set up before breakfast, visited Taminmin High School at Humpty Doo to see a polling booth in action and watched the count and close of the station at Ludmilla when voting closed.

Australian Electoral Commission international services project officer Cate Thompson was in Darwin with the group, and said the training was an exchange between the two countries.

"There are similarities and differences with how we do things", she said.

"We don't have all the answers, but this election has many of the same challenges."

The BRIDGE project is supported by the United Nations and involves countries all over the world. The project is a professional development course in election administration.