Kutai regency kicks off landmark elections
A'an Suryana and Rusman, The Jakarta Post, Kutai Kartanegara
Indonesia's nascent democracy achieved another landmark on Wednesday as thousands of residents of Kutai Kartanegara regency in East Kalimantan voted for their local leaders in the country's first ever regional direct election.
The election proceeded smoothly despite some administrative hiccups, notably the discovery of double voter cards at some polling stations, including those in Timbau and Maluhu subdistricts.
Kutai Kartanegara General Elections Commission chairman Ishack Iskandar said the irregularities were the result of administrative errors, including data entry.
He said the double voter cards were caused by poll officials typing in wrong addresses, dates and places of births, generating multiple voter cards with the same names but different addresses, dates or places of birth.
"But we resolved the problem. I instructed the heads of the polling stations to tear up the incorrect voter cards and make sure people vote only once," he said.
The double voter cards will not affect the elections, unless one of the three pairs of candidates bring the matter to court and successfully demand the election be repeated, said Suroto, the head of the Kutai Kartanegara Election Supervisory Committee.
"Hopefully, this last scenario will not happen," he said.
Kutai Kartanegara residents from all walks of life enthusiastically took part in the vote on Wednesday to elect a new regent and deputy regent.
Eligible voters began lining up at polling stations early in the morning, before the stations opened at 7 a.m. Voters continued to trickle into the stations until they closed at 1 p.m.
Although most of the voters took part in last year's direct presidential election, many believed the vote on Wednesday was more important because the outcome would directly affect their lives.
"The vote is crucial to elect leaders who will be able to bring us prosperity. If we fail to elect a good leader, surely bad days lie ahead," said Hendra Dwi Wijaksonon as he emerged from a polling station in Melayu subdistrict, Tenggarong city.
According to a quick count by the Pokja 30 Election Monitoring Group, Syaukani, who is seeking reelection, and his running mate Samsuri Aspar look likely to win the election.
The quick count, based on samples taken from 194 polling stations, has Syaukani and Samsuri Aspar winning 61.20 percent of the vote, followed by Sofyan Alex and Muhammad Irkham with 32.82 percent, and Tajudin Noor and Abdul Djabar Bukran with 5.98 percent.
Pokja 30 coordinator Kahar Al Bakhri said it planned to take samples from 200 of the total 1,391 polling stations across the regency.
Direct elections will be held this year in 214 regencies and municipalities and 11 provinces nationwide.