KPU admits flaws in voter registration

Arya Abhiseka The Jakarta Post Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) admitted on Tuesday that many flaws were evident in the voter registration process as revealed by a resistance to the program in some regions.

Chairman of the KPU Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin said he had received reports on some individuals who claimed their right to submit an unmarked ballot during the upcoming general elections by refusing to be registered by field officers from the Central Bureau of Statistics (BPS).

"It is not a problem if an individual chooses to exercise their right to leave their ballot empty on election day. However, the voter registration process is also being used to take the national census, through which citizens will be registered and given their identity number," he said.

Agus Suherman, the head of the national census and the voter registration process, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday that some resistance to the program had occurred in the West Java regency of Garut and several areas in East Java.

In those areas, Agus said, religious leaders had suggested their followers to boycott the voter registration as an expression of their dissatisfaction with current political practices.

Agus said the public's refusal to be registered resulted from lack of public information on the voter registration process.

"It (the registration) is also taking the national census. It is unpolitical, and the people must comply if they still want their Indonesian citizenship," he said.

Nazaruddin said that the public misunderstood the difference between exercising their individual rights and submitting to the voter registration procedure, which was instrumental to their personal administrative needs.

He explained further that if an individual did not have an identity number, there was a great possibility that they would be denied issue of an identification card, a driver's license, a marriage license, a passport or a visa.

The negative response to the registration also showed that preparations for the upcoming elections were uncoordinated. The voter registration process had been hindered by a lack of registration forms, field officers, public awareness and public acceptance.

Many have criticized the KPU on the poor awareness campaign for the general elections process, which could lead to public misinformation and misconceptions.

Safder Yussac, secretary general of the KPU, said on Tuesday that his institution had budgeted properly for the general elections awareness campaign, but that time constraints had prevented it from setting up a proper campaign.

"We budgeted some Rp 1.5 billion (US$169,539) for the awareness campaign. However, we had only two weeks before April 1 to plan a proper campaign, as a result of the prolonged deliberation of election bill," he explained.

The House of Representatives endorsed the election bill on Feb. 18 this year, leaving the KPU with only seven weeks to develop up a public service announcement, print and disburse voter registration forms and register voters, from April 1 to April 30.

The country's first direct general election will take place on April 5, 2003, and will be followed by a two-stage presidential election between June and August, in which some 130 million voters are expected to participate.