Aceh voter census to end soon

Aceh voter census to end soon

Nani Farida and Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post,
Banda Aceh/Jakarta

Amid controversy over whether Aceh, currently under martial law,
could hold the 2004 elections democratically, the local
statistics agency (BPS) promised on Friday to complete voter
registration next month, 30 days after the December deadline.

Aceh BPS head Iskandar Asyek said that the population census
had reached 98.3 percent of a total 10,130 residential areas in
the province.

Some 2,476,533 of 3,899,677 people in the war-torn province
had the right to vote in the 2004 elections, he said.

"We shall verify our census data to avoid people not being
registered as voters," Iskandar added.

According to him, the BPS used two methods to carry out voter
registration and the population census.

First, by visiting the homes of local people, and second, by
recording the number of red-and-white identity cards issued by
the martial law authorities, he said.

"Ideally, we have to visit all homes, but during the current
military operation we should have an alternative that is safer,"
Iskandar said.

He conceded that the BPS encountered a number of difficulties
in carrying out this task, such as a lack of officials, slow
document delivery and the lack of security, he said.

"Two of our officials were killed by Free Aceh Movement (GAM)
members, and two others physically attacked by separatist
rebels," he added.

The BPS, which has cooperated with the General Elections
Commission (KPU) in voter registration, has extended the deadline
several times to allow all people to be counted.

The agency extended the voter registration deadline from April
to May this year, but when the May deadline fell, it again
extended it in several conflict-torn and remote provinces like
Aceh, Maluku and Papua.

The central BPS office has said that over 143 million
Indonesians have been registered as voters for the 2004
elections.

Separately, KPU chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin said on Friday
that foreign monitoring agencies would be allowed to monitor
elections in Aceh next year.

He said the involvement of those agencies in monitoring the
elections in Aceh would help Indonesia boost its good image
overseas.