Paper short abstract:

International democracy makers travel as experts for change and transition to remote locations to implement and observe electoral processes. This paper explores the norms embedded in electoral support mechanisms as well as the dynamics and frictions in conjuncture with local agencies in Timor-Leste.

Paper long abstract:

Over the last two decades, electoral support activities have become core to external democracy promotion agendas, although their central status as democratization strategy is also contested. International organizations (in particular the UN EAD, UNDP, the EU, and some smaller agencies) have developed more and more refined techniques of election observation and technical electoral assistance. Their implementation follows written, binding and non-binding norms and commitments as well as unwritten best practices that change in always new local contexts where flexibility is required. This paper aims to explore the norms that carry the policy of electoral support, and which are embedded in its practices, in the context of their translation in interaction with local agencies in Timor-Leste. There, electoral politics constitute the base of the country's independence and young history as a nation state, and serve as arena for identity conflicts and political contestation.