Historic elections go off without a hitch in Jakarta

Historic elections go off without a hitch in Jakarta

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite minor disruptions in the voting process in some parts of
Jakarta, the eagerly-awaited legislative election in the capital
ended peacefully on Monday.

A short burst of heavy downpours, a few heated arguments over
inexcusable mistakes by the organizers and a number of evictees
who were denied their voting rights blemished the elections for
some, which have already been called the country's most
democratic ever.

Despite the slight disruptions, almost nothing was going to
stop the nearly 6.5 million eligible voters from doing their
civic duty at a total of 24,017 polling stations across Jakarta.

Jakarta Police chief Insp. Gen. Makbul Padmanagara, after
conducting a series of inspections in some areas, concluded that
election day in Greater Jakarta had gone swimmingly.

"It was peaceful and safe, let's hope it stays that way in the
future," Makbul said.

Despite the positive news from the majority of polling
stations, station number 054 in West Jakarta experienced some
serious problems, as dozens of residents of the Puri Indah
estates were enraged by a major polling staff error.

One and a half hour after the voting commenced, one man
realized that they had been voting on ballot papers designated
for the East Jakarta electoral district.

After a heated debate, the balloting was halted for about an
hour, while the poll committee members quickly replaced 10 wrong
papers with the correct ballot papers taken from a nearby
subdistrict office.

Meanwhile, in some areas in South Jakarta and Central Jakarta,
the voting and ballot-counting processes were delayed for about
90 minutes due to heavy downpours.

In Manggarai, particularly Pasar Rumput, Sawah Lunto,
Minangkabau and Menteng Wadas subdistricts, dozens of polling
stations were quickly evacuated as the rain pounded down.

The rain forced the local committee to temporarily close down
two polling stations in Pasar Rumput. "We had to do that so as
not to damage the ballot papers we had already collected," said
A. Hudaya, a Provincial Election Commission (KPUD) official.

Once the rain stopped, however, the people were quick to
return.

In Cengkareng Timur subdistrict in West Jakarta, hundreds of
evictees who had previously called Kampung Baru home, could only
sit on the grass and watch, as officials from the five polling
stations there did not allow them to vote, as none of them were
properly registered with valid addresses.

Warniti, 33, said that a few weeks after officials from
Central Statistics Agency (BPS) registered the families, the
Jakarta administration's bulldozers razed their homes.

"No further registration was held afterwards and now I can't
vote for anybody that will provide a home and job for me," said
Warniti, a mother of two.

In Glodok subdistrict, West Jakarta, thousands of Chinese-
Indonesian citizens turned up to enthusiastically cast their
votes, despite the 90-minute downpour.

"We want to show those people who say that we don't care about
anything but business and profits, that we have patriotic hearts,
and we'll exercise our right to vote," said A Liong, 35, a shop
owner at Mangga Dua Plaza.

Another voter, Koko, 65, said he was initially confused by the
number of parties, but he did have a good idea about two or three
of them.