34,000 residents lose voting rights

KUPANG, East Nusa Tenggara: Some 34,000 residents of East Nusa Tenggara province will be unable to vote in the upcoming general election because officials failed to register them, a poll official said on Monday.

"However, we will make an effort to allow them to exercise their right to vote in the upcoming presidential election," said Johanis Depa, a member of East Nusa Tenggara General Elections Commission (KPUD).

The 34,000 unregistered voters are residents of 14 regencies and mayoralties in the province.

Johanis said the residents were not registered to vote in the April 5 general election because of technical errors.

East Nusa Tenggara province is made up of a string of islands, making it difficult for officials from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) to meet the deadline for registering voters, which was Jan. 29.

Johanis said the KPUD would propose to the BPS that it register the residents to vote in the presidential election on July 5. The 34,000 residents are part of the 2,485,850 eligible voters in the province. -- JP