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.