Irian elections go ahead after delays

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

Elections in West Irian Jaya province's five regencies went ahead as scheduled on Monday with only one regency, Raja Ampat, failing to join in due to incomplete voter enrollments in three of its 10 districts.

"Elections in the Raja Ampat regency have been postponed for 10 days until all voters' data has been received by the Election Committee from the Population Office. But if we receive the data in two or three days time, we'll hold the election (sooner)," head of Raja Ampat Election Committee, Makabori Mayalibit, told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Elections in the six regencies -- Teluk Wondama, Raja Ampat, Teluk Bintuni, South Sorong, Kaimana and Fakfak -- were previously scheduled to be held in June along with the West Irian Jaya provincial election.

But poor preparations forced the elections to be put off to July 28, then postponed again until Aug. 29 for the same reasons.

However, while the elections went on as scheduled in the five regencies, elections for the province's inaugural governor have been delayed indefinitely.

Acting Raja Ampat regent, Jack Kapissa, regretted the committee's decision to delay the election without informing the regental council and himself.

He said the cancellation of the election was announced by the committee a day before it was due to be held through radio in Sorong city.

"He (Makabori) has to revoke the decision as it was made without the knowledge of the regent and council," Jack told the Post.

He blamed the decision on the committee's inability to compile voter information that had been handled out by the Raja Ampat Population Office. "They have the data they need, but they can't meet the deadline, unable to complete the list of voters in four, not three districts as claimed," Jack said.

Meanwhile, head of West Irian Jaya Election Committee, Regina Sauyai, hoped that administrative problems that had prevented elections in Raja Ampat regency would soon be resolved so that the elections could go ahead.

"Since it's administrative problem, we have taken no action so far. But if the matter is not taken care of in one or two days, we'll take over the organization of the election in that regency," Regina said.

In the Raja Ampat election, over 20,000 eligible voters will cast their votes in 88 booths in 86 villages.

Secretary of Teluk Wondama Election Committee, Marini Ortisan, said elections there had gone smoothly, with some 9,339 eligible voters started to arrive at the regency's 69 polling stations at 8 a.m. Results of the election will be known in the next four days.

West Irian Jaya province was established in 2002, being partitioned from Papua province. The establishment of the province has attracted much controversy with many considering it in violation of the government's own Special Autonomy Law.