The United Nations warned today that troublemakers could try to sabotage the first democratic election in East Timor's turbulent history, but was confident the poll would be free of major violence.
In the final hours before campaigning ends ahead of Thursday's vote, the capital Dili was a sea of colour as banner-waving voters, some with faces painted in party colours, flooded the streets in trucks, on motorbikes and on foot.
Despite fears of bloodshed and attacks by pro-Jakarta militias sheltering across the border in Indonesian West Timor, the campaign for a constituent assembly to pave the way for independence has been remarkably peaceful.
The most serious incident so far was the stoning of a car.
But impoverished East Timor's hugely popular president-in-waiting, Xanana Gusmao, and its chief UN administrator, Sergio Vieira de Mello, appealed to the people to ensure violence did not erupt. "I am not (concerned). But we need to remain vigilant," Mr Vieira de Mello told reporters.
"The fact the electoral campaign unfolded the way it did in a peaceful manner doesn't mean that agents provocateurs may not try in the next couple of days, or indeed when the results of the election are announced, to destabilise the process. They will fail," he said.