Many voters still not registered<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): A significant number of people eligible to vote
\nare still unregistered after the initial nationwide registration
\ndrive, which started on May 1st, ended yesterday.<\/p>\n
Spokesman for the Jakarta chapter of the General Election
\nCommittee Toto H. said the local registration officers had left
\n10 percent of eligible voters in Jakarta unregistered.<\/p>\n
\"We have registered 4.86 million voters or 90 percent of a
\ntotal 5.4 million of voters in Jakarta,\" he said yesterday.<\/p>\n
In Central Java, however, almost all of the eligible voters
\nhave been registered. \"We have registered almost one hundred
\npercent of the voters here,\" Central Java Governor Soewardi was
\nquoted by Antara as saying yesterday.<\/p>\n
He failed to come up with detailed figures however.<\/p>\n
The 20-day pre-registration activity was to register all
\nIndonesians aged 17 years or older, and teenagers who are already
\nmarried, as voters in the general election scheduled for May next
\nyear.<\/p>\n
Under the Indonesian electoral system voters will choose their
\nrepresentatives for local government and the national
\nlegislature.<\/p>\n
As the drive approached its end, there were reports of how
\nlarge numbers of people were still left unregistered. In East
\nJava, for instance, thousands of students of some Islamic
\nboarding schools and universities protested registration officers
\nwho refused to register them because they did not have identity
\ncards.<\/p>\n
Secretary-general of the Ministry of Home Affairs Suryatna
\nSoebrata, admitted that there were glitches in the registration
\nactivity caused by \"technicalities.\"<\/p>\n
\"A number of administrative problems appeared in various parts
\nof the country...they were caused by technicalities and
\nmisunderstandings,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The failure of the officers to register the students sooner,
\nhe said, was because they ran out of four million forms.<\/p>\n
He denied allegations that there were political motives behind
\nthe delayed registrations, as the Islamic boarding school
\nstudents are traditionally the constituents of the minority
\nUnited Development Party.<\/p>\n
\"We solved the problem by providing four millions forms to
\nCentral Java officers and they registered the students before the
\nregistration period ended. That's all,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Suryatna said that those who are still unregistered will have
\ntheir chance in the second phase of registration between June 21
\nto July 15. He estimated that a total of 119 million people will
\nbe eligible to vote next year. (imn)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/many-voters-still-not-registered-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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