Balinese voters get tangled in election mix-up
I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
For Anak Agung Ngurah Bagus Mulawarman, election day on Monday, which was eagerly awaited by many, was nothing but a bitter disappointment.
His name was not listed among those of registered voters and, consequently, he could not exercise his right to vote in the country's first direct general election.
"What a joke. Since my name was not on the list, does that also mean that I don't exist," said Mulawarman, who is an influential figure in his neighborhood.
To add insult to injury, as Mulawarman is a member of eastern Denpasar's noble house of Puri Kesiman, his attendance at the polling station was required to ensure that everything went according to schedule.
On election day, dressed in a fine traditional costume and smoking an expensive hand-rolled clove cigarette, Mulawarman watched attentively as streams of voters entered the meeting hall of the banjar (traditional neighborhood organization) Dajan Tangluk, where two polling booths were set up.
"Quite ironic isn't it? Here I am securing the very event that I was denied the chance to participate in, along with six of my family members," he said.
Others reported similar experiences to Mulawarman. Some six kilometers to the east, in a housing complex in Biaung area, Melina Carusso gritted her teeth over a similar mix-up.
"I relinquished my Australian citizenship to be an Indonesian national and now I cannot even participate in the elections. It's not a matter of whether I am going to exercise my rights or not, I just don't like the fact that somebody else has made that decision for me; by not recording my name on the list of voters," she complained.
Accurate data on the number of people who lost their right to vote due to the registration problem has not been made available.
Given the fact that the General Elections Committee (KPU) and the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) seem to be busily playing down the magnitude of the problem, or blaming each other for it, the chance of public access to that data in the near future is remote.
However, numerous reports by local media prior to and after election day indicated that the day was marred by various technical problems. These included those related to registration, which almost every regency on the island experienced.
In some regencies, these so-called slip-ups were too serious to ignore.
For instance, at least four under-age children, including a kindergarten student, in Karangasem regency had been registered as voters and issued with voter registration cards. Similar mistakes were made in Bangli regency.
In Klungkung regency, the KPU registered Men Ceple as a voter, despite that fact that she died almost ten years ago.
"It is simply disappointing and perplexing that the KPU failed to provide all citizens with equal rights and the opportunity to vote in the elections. After all, it used such a huge amount of taxpayers' money. It makes me sick," noted photographer Rio Helmi said.
For the record, Rio was also a victim of the registration jumble.