Kutais use floating booths in RI's first local direct polls

Rusman and A'an Suryana, The Jakarta Post, Kutai Kartanegara

Thousands of residents living in remote areas of Kutai Kartanegara regency in East Kalimantan may be unable to vote in local elections on Wednesday due to extensive flooding.

To overcome the problem, Kutai Kartanegara General Election Committee (KPU) has spent the last several days feverishly building 94 floating polling booths for six districts affected by flooding, a top poll official said on Monday.

"We hope the polling booths will be finished on time," said Ishack Iskandar, the head of the Kutai Kartanegara KPUD.

The Kutai Kertanegara election has gained widespread attention as it will be the first direct election of regional heads in the country.

At least 375,925 people are eligible to vote in the elections in the resource-rich regency.

The Kutai Kartanegara General Elections Commissions has approved the candidacy of three pairs of regental and deputy regental hopefuls -- Syaukani and Syamsuri Aspar who are backed by the Golkar Party; Aji Sofyan Alex and Irkham by the Prosperous Justice Party; and Tadjudin Noor and Abdul Jabbar by the Pancasila Patriot Party.

The floating polling booths will be set on rafts where the water is still deep, while polling booths on stilts will be erected in areas where the water has already subsided.

The booths will be used in six districts, namely 27 in Kota Bangung, 38 in Muara Kaman, 10 in Muara Muntai, seven in Muara Wis, two in Loa Kulu and 10 in Kenohan.

The closest floating polling booths to Tenggarong, the capital of Kutai Kartanegara regency, will be in Sungai Payang subdistrict, Loa Kulu district, which can be reached by small boat. The journey takes two hours from the capital of Loa Kulu district, some five kilometers from downtown Tenggarong.

The KPU will also mobilize poll officials to go house to house by boat in flooded areas so that residents can vote.

Many houses in Kutai Kartanegara are built on stilts near the massive Mahakam River.

Meanwhile, Ishack said four independent poll monitors were ready to observe the elections.

The four groups are the Kutai Activist Alliance, the Voters Education Network for People (JPPR), the Working Group 30 and the Commission Overseeing Direct Elections-Indonesian Muslim Students Association's Tenggarong branch, Kutai Kartanegara, East Kalimantan.