E. Java students may lose voting rights<\/p>\n
SURABAYA (JP): Thousands of students at Islamic boarding
\nschools and universities in East Java may lose their
\nvoting rights in next year's general elections because
\nregistration officers have failed to take them down as eligible
\nvoters.<\/p>\n
Syumli Sadli, chairman of the provincial chapter of the United
\nDevelopment Party (PPP), among whose traditional constituents are
\nthe santri or boarding schools students, said around 5,000
\nstudents of Salafiyah Syafiiyah Islamic boarding school in
\nSukorejo sub-district, Situbondo regency, are still waiting to be
\nregistered.<\/p>\n
The preliminary registration started on May 1 and will end on
\nMay 20.<\/p>\n
Syumli told The Jakarta Post that officers had only registered
\n1,000 of the 6,000 students eligible to vote.<\/p>\n
He said he had filed a complaint with the East Java chapter of
\nthe General Elections Institute (LPU). \"The officers of the local
\nchapter first said that they had run out of registration forms.
\nNow they have promised us that they will register the remaining
\n5,000 students before May 20,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier, the officers were reported as saying that they could
\nnot register the students because they did not have identity
\ncards.<\/p>\n
Thousands of students at other Islamic boarding schools in
\nEast Java, like the Tebu Ireng school and the Tambak Beras
\nIslamic school, both in Jombang, may also lose their voting
\nrights.<\/p>\n
Thousands of university students in Surabaya, Malang, and
\nJember, may also be denied their vote because they have not been
\nregistered either.<\/p>\n
Some of the students told the Post that they couldn't be
\nbothered as they did not have any intention to vote in the first
\nplace.<\/p>\n
\"I'm going to abstain from voting. I'm a Golput,\" Andy
\nRahardja, a student of the Malang-based National Institute of
\nTechnology (ITN), told the Post.<\/p>\n
Golput, which stands for Golongan Putih (literally, \"white
\ngroup\"), is a term used to refer to those who opt not to vote for
\nany of the three political parties at election time at all.<\/p>\n
On May 1st, registration officers began knocking on doors to
\nregister all Indonesians 17 years or older, and teenagers who are
\nalready married, as voters in the 1997 general election.<\/p>\n
Under the Indonesian electoral system, voters choose their
\nrepresentatives for local government and the legislature.
\n(15\/imn)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/e-java-students-may-lose-voting-rights-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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