Officials register dead to vote

PADANG, West Sumatra: Election officials in the Mentawai Islands have registered 18 dead people as voters in Monday's elections.

The hair-raising news was told by a village chief from Siberut Island to the West Sumatra branch office of the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP) on Wednesday.

"Just imagine," said Malilimok village chief Jonas Panuagai, "in a single village, 18 people who died years ago have been registered as voters. I was wondering how many dead people have been registered in the whole of Mentawai."

Arnez, an official of the West Sumatra election supervisory committee, promised he would look into the village chief's claim. (28)