Official poll body checks registration

Official poll body checks registration

JAKARTA (JP): The official Election Supervision Committee, led
by its chief, Attorney General Singgih, yesterday conducted
monitoring of the voter registration procedures.

The team watched registration activities in some districts of
South and West Jakarta as well as in Tangerang, some 30
kilometers west of Jakarta. The national registration drive began
on Wednesday and will last until May 20.

Included in the team were Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid and Commodore
Pranowo of the Armed Forces, as well as representatives of the
three political organizations competing in the 1997 general
elections.

They included Abdul Gafur of the ruling Golkar faction, Tosari
Widjaja of the United Development Party (PPP), and Ismunandar of
the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI).

At almost the same time, a number of independent poll
watchdogs also began their supervision of the registration
procedure.

Effendi Saman and Desmond J. Mahesa of the National Committee
for the Supervision of General Elections in Bandung, and Santoso
of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee in Jakarta said
their organizations had sent activists across the country forms
to note down violations, their perpetrators and people who report
violations to them.

"We'll then conduct investigations," Effendi said.

Back in Jakarta, Chief of the Setiabudi sub-district Sujadi
H.M. Ali in South Jakarta told Singgih and his team that in only
two days, the registration officers had registered 6,406 people
or half of those eligible to vote in his area.

Registration officers began knocking on doors to register all
Indonesians 17 years of age or older, and teenagers who are
already married, as voters in the 1997 general election, which is
scheduled for June next year.

Under the Indonesian electoral system voters will choose their
representatives for local government and the national
legislature. (imn/17)