Voting in Australia was the first to close at 3:00 pm local time, following those in South Korea and Timor-Leste with voting in Europe due to begin  because of a time difference.

The Technical Secretariat for Electoral Administration said it deployed personnel to all polling stations to watch for voter intimidation and suppression.

Director General of STAE Acilino Manuel Branco told reporters there had been no reports of serious incidents at polling stations during the day.

Across the country, the Independente observed large queues of voters waiting peacefully to have their say in an election which the 65 members of National Parliament will be elected.

In the three polling stations in Australia, the electoral commission reported a turnout 43.22%, with 969 of the 1,442 registered voters voting.

In Melbourne, 623 electors cast the ballots, with 173 electors each in Sydney and Darwin centres.

One of the election glitches were complaints from Timorese working far from Australia’s three polling stations – in Queensland, West Australia -  who were unable to participate in the vote due to distance.

There are 17 political parties vying for yesterday’s election, with the complex counting process expected to take several days.