Abstention rate may skyrocket in runoff, observers worry

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta

If anything, the nation's first direct presidential election has ended in distinction: Some 32 million people did not exercise their voting rights.

It appears some voters were unable to cast their ballots in the July 5 election due to unintended administrative errors, but it is presumed that the total was negligible.

More than 155 million voters were registered for the July 5 election, whose final results were announced on Monday.

The abstention rate is roughly a 10 percent increase on the April 5 legislative election, when 23.5 million people refused to vote.

This has raised concern among political analysts and election watchdogs less than two months to the runoff, at which the incumbent president, Megawati Soekarnoputri, is to face her former subordinate, retired Army general Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

In a reversal of the figures, the voter turnout decreased from 84 percent in the April 5 legislative election to 76 percent in the July 5 election. Around 148 million voters were registered for the April 5 election.

Independent Committee for Election Monitoring (KIPP) coordinator Ray Rangkuti stated that people did not exercise their voting rights because they did not trust the KPU.

Therefore, he said, the KPU ought to boost its image.

"Dissemination of information is not an effective way. I think KPU chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin should resign to boost the commission's image," he said.

Ray claimed that his team discovered numerous violations in the presidential election, with 80 percent perpetrated by KPU officials.

The minor explosion on Monday, he said, was evidence of action from people who held the KPU in very low regard.

He said that as the number of people who distrusted the agency increased, the more people would refrain from exercising their political rights.

"The KPU must strengthen its campaign on the importance of the presidential election. However, we cannot only rely on the KPU to carry out the campaign," political analyst Maswadi Rauf told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.

Maswadi suggested that political and community leaders had to take part in the campaign. He also criticized community leaders who publicly said that they would not exercise their voting rights.

KPU chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin said his office would not take specific action to improve voter turnout.

"This is a democratic era. We cannot force people to exercise their voting rights," he said on Tuesday.

Separately, Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO) director Smita Notosusanto said that she was not worried about the declining percentage in voter turnout.

She said she was more concerned about the voter registration process carried out by KPU officials.

"I think the rate of abstentions is less than 5 percent. If around 20 percent of registered voters did not exercise their voting rights, then we should question the other 15 percent," she told the Post.

Smita said that there had been a "markup" in the number of registered voters as many people had been registered twice and a number of children had also been registered as voters.

She added the KPU had to improve the registration of voters and its handling of logistical arrangements.