Yesterday was another quiet one – just as you would expect from an Easter weekend. Not that I looked, but I don’t even recall seeing Easter eggs in shops. This is a good thing.

I am not expecting any trouble until tomorrow – election day. There still may be none but somehow once the results start rolling in, I think that will lift tensions, particularly if there are some surprise results.

Voting starts at 7am and goes until 4pm. Voters select one candidate only. Voters can vote at any polling place in the country provided they have their voter registration card or passport. A finger is dipped in indelible ink to record that a voter has done the job and to prevent the “vote early, vote often” syndrome.

There has been a high level of party politics associated with this election, which at the end of the day, is for a president who actually wields very little power. I think it was a major frustration for Xanana Gusmao to find people queueing up to see him with problems and being unable to do anything about it. The presidential role here seems more analogous to “governor-general” in the Commonwealth system but the term “president” here carries a weight far less than say a US president in power terms.

I can recall the issue of a popular vote for Australia’s GG (governor-general). Given the role has no real power over political outcomes (except under exceptional circumstances), I shuddered at the thought of the major parties putting forward candidates for another political stoush. I sort of prefer it that the GG is appointed and just disappears into the background, spending life shaking hands and having lots of cups of tea … and occasionally gets drunk at the races.