KPUD expects 1.1 million more voters

KPUD expects 1.1 million more voters

Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta

While 4.4 million Jakartans voted in the April 5 legislative
election, the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD) expects
to register 1.1 million more voters for the July 5 presidential
election.

Member of the KPUD Hamdan Rasyid, said new voters would
comprise those who had turned 17 after the general election,
newly married couples, soldiers who had recently retired and
others.

A total of 6.48 million Jakartans were registered to vote in
the legislative election, but only around 4.4 million actually
voted.

Hamdan said on Tuesday, KPUD assumed that around two million
people, who did not vote on April 5, would not vote in the
presidential election either.

"With the addition of one million new voters, we hope that
some 5.5 million people in Jakarta will cast their votes in the
next election," Hamdan told The Jakarta Post.

To encourage people to vote, the KPU has twice revised the
deadline for the registration of new voters.

Initially, KPU set May 5 as the deadline, but the cutoff was
extended to May 10, and finally to May 17.

Hamdan said KPUD invited all residents who had voting rights
to register themselves with their respective neighborhood or
community units.

Several heads of community and neighborhood units told the
Post that new voters had been keen to register.

Yusin Kunarso, head of Community Unit (RW) 5 in Pejagalan
subdistrict, West Jakarta, said around 300 people had registered
as new voters. Around 1,500 voters had previously registered with
the Community Unit.

He said he had reported the new registrations to the
subdistrict office, but was anticipating that many more voters
would register before the cutoff.

Nana Sasmita, head of the Neighborhood Unit (RT) 3 in Cipinang
Besar Selatan subdistrict, East Jakarta, said around 15
additional voters had registered there.