Voters unable to punch ballots: Survey<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
If the legislative election was held today, most ballot papers
\nwould probably be disqualified due to errors made by voters in
\npunching the ballot papers, a survey indicated.<\/p>\n
A survey conducted by the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro)
\nrevealed that more than half of the country's 145 million voters
\nin the 2004 elections still do not know how to punch ballot
\npapers properly.<\/p>\n
Most voters, according to the results of the survey announced
\non Thursday, do not know that they have to punch both the logo of
\nthe political party and the name of the candidate.<\/p>\n
Hadar N. Gumay, deputy director of Cetro, said 43 percent of
\nvoters only punched the ballot paper on the logo as they had done
\nin the past, while 34 percent did not know where to punch.<\/p>\n
"The poor knowledge about the procedure for punching the
\nballot paper in this year's legislative election reaches almost
\nall levels of voters," Hadar told a media conference here on
\nThursday.<\/p>\n
Indonesia will hold a legislative election on April 5, 2004.<\/p>\n
Those who do not know how to punch the ballot papers are
\nmostly people from remote villages, elderly voters, farmers, taxi
\ndrivers, and public transportation drivers, the survey showed.<\/p>\n
The survey conducted between Dec. 4 and Dec. 22, 2003 involved
\n2,995 respondents in 10 provinces -- Jakarta, West Java, Central
\nJava, East Java, North Sumatra, South Sumatra, Bali, West
\nKalimantan, South Kalimantan, and South Sulawesi. Almost 65
\npercent of respondents lived in villages and the remainder lived
\nin cities.<\/p>\n
The survey also shows that there was no significant difference
\nbetween voters on Java island and outside Java as most of them
\nstill have no idea how to punch the ballot paper properly.<\/p>\n
In West Java, only 14 percent of voters punched the ballot
\npaper correctly and in East Java, 15 percent. The two provinces
\ncombined have more than 52 million voters, more than one-third of
\ntotal voters in the 2004 elections.<\/p>\n
In North Sumatra, only 17 percent punched the ballot paper
\nproperly, in South Kalimantan 20 percent, West Kalimantan 24
\npercent, South Sulawesi 39 percent, Bali 35 percent, and South
\nSumatra 30 percent.<\/p>\n
The survey also revealed that 63 percent of voters have never
\nheard of the Regional Representatives Council (DPD), and 84
\npercent voters have no knowledge about the 30 percent quota for
\nwomen in the House of Representatives.<\/p>\n
Hadar said the poor voter knowledge was due to the failure of
\nboth the General Elections Commission (KPU) and the government in
\ndisseminating information.<\/p>\n
Syamsuddin Harris from the Indonesian Institute of Sciences
\n(LIPI) concurred.<\/p>\n
"This survey indicates that the nationwide dissemination of
\nelectoral information launched by President Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri two months ago is just rhetoric," he told
\nreporters.<\/p>\n
"People know about the 2004 elections, but they do not know
\nwhen the elections will be held or the new procedure for punching
\nballot papers", Syamsuddin said.<\/p>\n
He went on to say that if the information campaign failed, the
\nquality of the 2004 elections would be no better than the 1999
\nelections and many votes would be declared invalid.<\/p>\n
Hadar called on the KPU and the government to seriously
\nconduct an election information campaign through the mass media
\nand direct meetings.<\/p>\n
Separately, KPU media adviser Djohermansyah Djohan said that
\nthe KPU would launch an election information dissemination
\nprogram next week until April 5 through 300 radio stations, seven
\ntelevision stations and 11 print media.<\/p>\n
"This aggressive election information program is made possible
\nby a US$2 million fund provided by the United Nations Development
\nProgram," he said.<\/p>\n
Djohermansyah said the infomericals would begin on Monday with
\nsix to 10 slots per day on radio, followed by TV stations with 10
\nslots per day on Jan. 26. A radio slot lasts for one minute,
\nwhile one slot on TV is 30 seconds.<\/p>\n
KPU has allotted Rp 75 billion from the state budget for the
\nelection information dissemination program and plans to add
\nanother Rp 40 billion from the 2004 state budget.<\/p>",
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