Voter education successful: KPU<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta\/Ambon\/Banda Aceh<\/p>\n
The General Elections Commission (KPU) claims that the
\ndissemination of information on the legislative election was a
\nsuccess as reflected by the high number of valid votes.<\/p>\n
KPU member Valina Singka Subekti admitted there were less
\nvalid votes in this year's election than in the 1999 polls, but
\nsaid it could not be read as a setback considering the complex
\nprocedures in the recent election.<\/p>\n
\"Although the percentage of invalid votes has increased, I can
\nsay that our voter education was relatively successful due to the
\ncomplexity of this year's legislative election and the limited
\ntime available to disseminate the information to the public,\"
\nValina told reporters.<\/p>\n
As of Monday invalid votes for the election of House of
\nRepresentatives members reached 6,691,583 or 6.8 percent of
\n97,964,840 votes counted from around 447,000 polling stations.<\/p>\n
There were over 147 million people eligible to vote at more
\nthan 585,000 polling stations across the country in the April 5
\nelection.<\/p>\n
Out of 110,172,137 votes counted in the 1999 election of House
\nmembers, 4,385,507 or 3.9 percent were declared invalid.<\/p>\n
In this year's election, a voter should perforate a party
\nsymbol and the name of a legislative candidate belonging to the
\nparty or just the symbol of a party on the ballot paper.<\/p>\n
In previous elections, people only voted for parties.<\/p>\n
A number of surveys rated the KPU's performance in informing
\nthe public of the election procedures as poor, based on findings
\nthat many people were not aware of how to cast votes, the
\npolitical parties contesting the election nor legislative
\ncandidates ahead of the poll.<\/p>\n
Valina said the KPU would only announce the voter turnout for
\nthis year's election when the ballot counting was finished.<\/p>\n
She also said that the KPU would open registration for
\nadditional voters for the presidential election between April 25
\nand May 10. The second chance to register followed complaints
\nlodged by people who were unable to vote because they were not
\nregistered.<\/p>\n
Separately, KPU member Anas Urbaningrum said the KPU would
\nmove back the registration period for presidential and vice
\npresidential candidates from its original schedule between May 1
\nand May 7 if the commission failed to announce the election
\nresults on April 28.<\/p>\n
The KPU is still waiting for results from regental\/municipal
\nelection commissions, which should have been completed on April
\n20.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile the commission has given the Maluku Provincial
\nElection Commission (KPUD) an extension for manual vote counting
\nto April 25. Maluku KPUD chairman Idrus Tatuhey said the KPU
\nwould not tolerate anymore delays.<\/p>\n
The slow manual vote counting was due in part to discrepancies
\nin the number of votes counted by the district election
\ncommission and witnesses who represented political parties.<\/p>\n
\"To speed up the process, we will take the results of the vote
\ncounting from the regental and municipal KPUD ourselves before we
\nsend them to Jakarta,\" Idrus said.<\/p>\n
In Aceh, the Southeast Aceh regental election supervisory
\ncommittee (Panwaslu) announced 59 violations, including the use
\nof vote buying by Golkar Party.<\/p>\n
Committee official M. Jafar said Golkar executives took back
\nthe money and construction materials it had given to local
\nresidents of a certain village to build a mosque after the party
\nlost there.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/voter-education-successful-kpu-1447893297",
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