Vote registration officers must cope with uninformed public<\/p>\n
Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The number one problem for Harun, a voter registration volunteer,
\nis locating the houses where he dropped off registration forms a
\nweek earlier.<\/p>\n
It's not that he has a bad memory. But the houses are in the
\nsmall and crowded alleyways of the Bukit Duri slum area near the
\nCiliwung River in East Jakarta. And the house numbers do not seem
\nto help.<\/p>\n
\"House number eight does not necessarily stand next to house
\nnumber nine. They are spread all over the area and I have to
\nmemorize them and find the houses one by one,\" Harun told The
\nJakarta Post on Thursday evening.<\/p>\n
Harun, who works as a security guard during the day, is just
\none of many people from all walks of life who have volunteered to
\nserve as field officers to register eligible voters for the 2004
\nelections.<\/p>\n
Locating house numbers is only one of the many obstacles faced
\nby Harun and the other volunteers.<\/p>\n
Generally, he said, people are aware of the upcoming elections
\nbut are unaware of how it will work, the result of a poor public
\nawareness campaign.<\/p>\n
He said, as an example, that people were often unprepared to
\ngive him the information he required.<\/p>\n
\"It makes our job harder than it sounds, because we have to
\nspend quite some time waiting for the residents to find the
\ndocuments we need.\"<\/p>\n
Yet he happily does the job, for which he is only paid Rp 500
\nfor each person he registers.<\/p>\n
\"I calculated that I will make between Rp 300,000 (US$33) and
\nRp 400,000 from this job. A pretty good amount,\" Harun said.<\/p>\n
The General Elections Commission (KPU), which is organizing
\nthe 2004 legislative elections, contracted the Central Statistics
\nAgency (BPS) to conduct a simultaneous nationwide census and
\nvoter registration.<\/p>\n
The BPS has trained and deployed some 230,000 field officers
\nsince April 1 of this year to begin registering people.<\/p>\n
The process was due to be completed by April 30, but when the
\nBPS failed to meet this deadline the KPU extended the deadline to
\nMay 15. But the registration process in Jakarta has been extended
\nto November, as some 3 percent of the population has still not
\nbeen registered.<\/p>\n
The KPU set aside some Rp 407 billion (US$45.7 million) for
\nthe process. Despite the relatively high budget, the process
\noften ran into difficulties, with reports of a lack of
\nregistration forms and field officers in several provinces. And
\nas of today, the nationwide census and voter registration is
\nstill underway.<\/p>\n
Though some people complain about a lack of public awareness
\nabout the registration process, the KPU claims to have budgeted
\nsome Rp 1.5 billion for a public awareness campaign, including
\npublic service announcements on television and radio.<\/p>\n
However, these announcements have rarely found their way onto
\nthe air during peak hours.<\/p>\n
The result of this rather lackluster public awareness campaign
\nhas been public misinformation and misinterpretation of whole
\nelection process.<\/p>\n
Harun said the biggest problem he faced was when people
\nrefused to fill out voter registration forms because they were so
\ndisappointed with the whole political situation.<\/p>\n
He said everyone, including foreigners, had to fill out the
\nregistration forms, regardless of whether they planned to vote in
\nthe elections or not, because the information would be used to
\ncreate a single population database.<\/p>\n
Harun also stressed the government's failure to create
\nawareness that the registration process was part of the plan to
\nprovide citizens with registered identity numbers.<\/p>\n
The identity numbers can be described as the equivalent to the
\nSocial Security numbers used in the United States, which is a
\nsingle identity number that is used for various purposes,
\nincluding obtaining an identification card, driver's license,
\nmarriage license, passport, visa and bank account.<\/p>\n
Aminuddin, a registration officer in the upscale neighborhood
\nof Menteng, Central Jakarta, said he also noticed a lack of
\npublic awareness about the registration process. Worse, he often
\nhad to navigate his way around guard dogs.<\/p>\n
Another problem is that most of the residents are rarely at
\nhome so it is difficult to find them and register them, he said.<\/p>\n
\"I still have about 20 registration forms that have not been
\nfilled out or returned since last month,\" said Aminuddin.<\/p>\n
The Central Statistic Agency told The Jakarta Post on Thursday
\nthat the voter registration process was proceeding smoothly, with
\nabout 98 percent of the country's 210 million residents already
\nregistered, with the exception of the provinces of Aceh and
\nPapua.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/vote-registration-officers-must-cope-with-uninformed-public-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}