Parts of Papua not yet ready to hold elections

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The legislative elections in several regencies in Papua province may be held at the latest by next Saturday should election materials not have arrived before then, the head of the provincial elections committee said.

Ferry Kareth was quoted by Antara as saying on Sunday that the General Elections Commission (KPU) has left it up to the local KPU offices in the province to decide the best measures to take following the government's decision to hold the legislative elections nationwide on Monday except in remote areas where the necessary supplies had not arrived.

President Megawati Soekarnoputri had cited Papua and West Irian Jaya as provinces where the polls could be delayed. The two provinces respectively have 1,141,602 voters and 343,252 voters out of the country's over 147 million eligible voters.

Kareth said his office has recommended to the provincial KPU office that 11 regencies that had not received all the required election materials could hold the legislative polls within five days after the nationwide elections on April 5.

With a long list of grievances against Jakarta among Papuans, the government had been hoping for successful elections in Papua and the new West Irian Jaya province. The forming of the new province itself was highly controversial as locals said that Jakarta had ignored their wishes after they had eventually accepted the law on Papuan regional autonomy.

A large military presence for many years here has yet to wipe out the separatist Free Papua Organization (OPM). Ahead of Monday's vote, a alleged OPM member, Maryus Kogoya, was shot by police in Jayapura. He had been attempting to escape arrest, police said, adding that he had been charged with encouraging people not to vote.

Several members of the Papuan elite are, however, trying to work within the system with a number of activists and clergymen standing as candidates for the legislative bodies. They include Boy Eluay, the son of slain Papuan leader Theys Eluay, who is running for the National Awakening Party (PKB).

Illiteracy also remains a problem in Papua. Reuters on Sunday quoted a village chief as saying that illiterate voters would be assisted by election committee members. Voters could give their choice to an election polling official, witnessed by independent observers, and the official would cast the ballot on his/her behalf, said Yunus Haluk, chief of Siepkos village outside the highland town in Wamena. He said most voters in his village were illiterate.

Antara also reported that observers from the European Union would monitor the polls in Biak Numfor regency.