'Ghost' voters could haunt presidential election

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) warned on Monday that millions of "ghost" voters, or those recorded on the voters registration list who did not actually exist, could affect the July 5 presidential election.

After a month-long registration period, the commission has managed to remove only 1.4 million of an estimated five million ghost voters.

"Officials at the Village Elections Committees (PPSs) have worked steadily to identify nonexistent voters and dropped them from the list, but time is not on our side. We need more time to further reduce the number of ghost voters," KPU Deputy Chairman Ramlan Surbakti told a media briefing here.

Ramlan said he was disappointed at the result.

Ghost voters are those registered on the list of eligible voters although they may have already died, moved away, been jailed or are underage.

Independent poll watchdogs such as the Rectors' Forum and the Economic and Social Research, Development and Education Institute (LP3ES) have estimated that the figure stands at 2 percent of eligible voters.

Ramlan said ghost voters would cause an excess of ballot papers on election day.

"Consequently, we have created new procedures to reject leftover ballot papers in anticipation of possible ballot rigging," he said.

On election day, members of Polling Station Committees (KPPSs) would mark unpierced ballot papers with black markers and then keep them in sealed envelopes, he said.

The commission has planned to print an extra 2.5 percent of around 150 million ballot papers as a reserve for the presidential polls.

In the April 5 legislative elections, there were instances in which voter cards were sent out to children, dead people or those who had already moved to a different location.