"I'm not going to rubber stamp anything," said one of the United Nations officials with the pivotal role of deciding whether East Timor's "popular consultation" will be a true reflection of the will of the people.
"The commission is unique. It runs the whole damn system and makes the rules," said Mr Patrick Bradley, who as Northern Ireland's chief electoral officer announced the results of the referendum on the Belfast Agreement.
He is one of three "eminent persons" chosen for their independence of mind by the UN Secretary General, Mr Kofi Annan, to be part of the prestigious Electoral Commission for the ballot managed by the UN Mission in East Timor (UNAMET).
Turning the other cheek in the face of pro-autonomy thuggery, thousands have registered for the vote and the test now will be if they make the return journey over rugged mountainous terrain to complete the exercise of their rights.
The commission may have to ponder the vexed question of a 5050 result but has the power to say that it really represented, say, a 70-30 wish of the people for independence. If autonomy, meaning continued rule by Indonesia, is the result on paper, their task is unenviable.
The commissioners will "factor in" the effect of intimidation, which has included hundreds of murders, attacks on independence offices, and beatings by paramilitary thugs in open league with pro-Indonesian politicians and with the security forces.
Already, the commissioners have been the object of controversy. In the tense lead-up to today, they were reported last week to have recommended that the ballot be called off. This Mr Bradley firmly rejects.
The commission's role is judicial. "We don't answer to anybody." The commission is the "final court of appeal" in the UNAMET system. Its decisions can be by majority vote.
Nor is the commission part of UNAMET. It is there "to watch and see that the mission carries out the function it was given", to provide the infrastructure for a level playing field.
The commission has already adjudicated on fewer than 150 appeals and objections to a register of 451,792 voters.
"The election would not go ahead if the quality of the register was not of sufficient quality," he says. But "the most difficult part is to come". When the ballots are brought from 200 electoral centres under guard of unarmed UNAMET "civpol" police and Indonesian police, to a central counting centre at a museum building, close to Dili's Comoro Airport, they will not be counted constituency by constituency.
Some ballot returns may be delayed if attacks force the closure of polling stations, which will open for business the next day. This will also apply if there are long queues of people who have trekked many miles to exercise their franchise.
In Dili, the votes will be mixed together before counting so that no one will know how individual villages voted.
The result will then be sent to the commissioners, who also include Mr Johann Kriegler, a South African electoral commissioner and constitutional lawyer; and Ms Bong-Scuk Sohn, a political scientist and women's rights advocate from South Korea.
Their judgment on the result will be sent to Mr Annan, who is expected to make an announcement within a week.
That's the theory. Dirty tricks may be ahead, but already there has been criticism of the ballot paper itself. As part of a campaign that has been able to print and distribute much more literature than the independence side, the autonomists have used disinformation.
In areas that are known to be solidly pro-independence, they have used a slogan, "Stab the one you hate," a reference to the provision of a nail at the polling station to make it simple for illiterate people, some 60 per cent of the population. It is seen as an attempt to fool people into voting for autonomy.
Independence is not mentioned on the ballot. It is a question of "accept autonomy" or of rejecting it. So to vote yes for independence one must vote no.