Jakarta declares itself ready for election runoff

Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta

Jakarta is prepared for the presidential election runoff on Sept. 20, with all of the election materials distributed to the subdistrict offices, Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) head Muhamad Taufik said on Wednesday.

"One hundred percent of the materials have been distributed to the subdistrict offices. We are now just waiting for D-Day," he said.

The KPUD has distributed 7,067,106 ballot papers for about 6.7 million eligible voters in the capital. The number of eligible voters is similar to the number who took part in the first round of the presidential election on July 5.

Taufik said as many as 24,228 polling stations would be set up in 267 subdistricts across the city. The KPUD will deploy 218,900 people to monitor the voting on Sept. 20.

He also said the KPUD had distributed materials to help blind voters cast their votes unassisted. There are about 4,400 registered blind voters in Jakarta.

Entering the second day of the three-day election campaign period, there was little evidence in the capital of an impending election.

Taufik said the KPUD was allowing the campaign teams for the two presidential candidates to organize closed-door rallies in the city's five municipalities and Kepulauan Seribu regency during the campaign period, but neither of the teams was taking advantage of the opportunity.

Irwanny Temmy, a campaigner for Megawati Soekarnoputri, said his team preferred door-to-door campaigning rather than organizing limited public gatherings.

He said his team had not printed many banners or posters as this was already done ahead of the first round of the election. "I think the public already knows our candidate. Therefore, that kind of campaigning is no longer necessary."