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.