Fraud fears as Kutai goes to the pools

A'an Suryana and Rusman, The Jakarta Post, Kutai Kartanegara

Kutai Kartanegara are bracing for landmark direct regental elections, but there are fears of possible fraud during the vote on Wednesday.

As the sun rose in the energy-rich regency on Tuesday, subdistrict poll committees, helped by local communities, erected polling booths.

Enthusiasm was evident among residents, who have for years been denied the right to directly elect their local leaders.

"I will vote tomorrow (Wednesday), but who I will vote for remains a secret," said Sri, a Javanese migrant woman who has been living in the regency for 14 years.

Many others also expressed their eagerness to cast their ballots on Wednesday.

Indonesia's democracy will again be put to the test when citizens in 226 regencies, mayoralties and provinces elect their leaders directly between June and December. The series of regional elections will start in Kutai Kartanegara.

Last year Indonesians directly elected their president and vice president in elections that drew international praise as the most democratic polls in the country's history.

The old election system in which legislatures elected leaders has been criticized for its vulnerability to vote buying and back-room deals among politicians.

It was business as usual in the regency on Tuesday, with people going to their workplaces and children to their schools.

Unperturbed by the people's euphoria, Zulkarnain, a lecturer at the school of social and political sciences at Kutai Kartanegara University, examined one of his student's master thesis.

"The election will be crucial as to whether we can have honest and capable leaders. It does not matter who wins the election so long as he is committed to bringing prosperity to the people," said Zulkarnain.

Despite the enthusiasm, poll officials shared their concerns about possible poll fraud that might tarnish the election. They found that the number of registered voters had inexplicably increased in several areas.

In Loh Ipu subdistrict, Tenggarong city, a subdistrict poll committee was confused as the number of voters had risen to 365 from the 283 recorded during the presidential election runoff last September.

"We have examined the discrepancy and have met with each voter to check whether there are ghost voters, but still we cannot find the answer," said Gito, the chief of polling station 44 in Loh Ipu.

His colleague Rosadi, who chairs polling station 43, said the margin was too high.

"The KPUD is not professional. They have made a lot of mistakes," said Rosadi, referring to the regental elections commission.

He said some people had complained to him that the KPUD had wrongly recorded their birth place on the voter cards.

Ishack Iskandar, the KPUD chief, admitted there had been an increase in the number of eligible voters to 375,925 from 353,438 registered in the presidential election last year.

The increase was attributed to migration, and to invalid data from the Central Bureau of Statistics.

"The main factor behind the increase is migration. Remember that Kutai Kartanegara is a destination for migrants from Java, and there are also people with high mobility especially those who work for mining and timber companies," said Ishack on Tuesday.

He admitted, however, to having received reports on voters who held two voter cards.

"There could have been administrative mistakes. We have ordered subdistrict poll committees to stick to the voters list and not allow outsiders to vote in a polling booth even if they manage to produce a written notification," said Ishack.

This peculiarity has been questioned by locals as it opens up the possibly of voting fraud, with certain voters from other areas voting at more than one polling station. According to regulations, people are allowed to vote in areas outside of their home subdistrict as long they obtain a written explanation that they are actually a resident of that subdistrict.