'Ghost' voters could haunt presidential election

'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.