Public participation in election poor: Cetro

Public participation in election poor: Cetro

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Sixteen percent of registered voters were not able to exercise
their rights to vote in the April 5 legislative election because
most could not obtain voter cards, a non-government organization
said on Tuesday.

A senior advisor to the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro),
Todung Mulya Lubis, said here on Tuesday the General Elections
Commission (KPU) was responsible for the low participation of
voters in the election.

Cetro's figures were based on monitoring at 2,614 polling
stations in Jakarta, Central Java, North Sumatra, and South
Kalimantan.

"We will push the Constitutional Court to make a breakthrough
by ... issuing an edict to urge the KPU to fulfill voters'
rights," Todung, a noted human rights activist, said.

Also in attendance were Cetro executive director Smita
Notosusanto and her deputy, Hadar N. Gumay.

Hadar alleged the working committee for polling stations
(KPPS) had intentionally allowed about 5 percent of voters to use
other people's voter cards to punch ballot papers.

The committee had also allowed people without any voting cards
to vote. The number of voters without cards was estimated to be
20 percent of the total voters, Hadar said, without giving
further details.

The KPU had also failed to promote the importance of access to
the polling stations for handicapped people, he said. At least 33
percent of about 600,000 polling stations nationwide did not
provide adequate access to the disabled.

"With such a poor management of the election, the KPU deserves
to be (graded) a 'C', while voters with their enthusiasm to vote
should be given an 'A'," Hadar said.

Separately, Andi Sahibuddin of the People's Network for
Indonesian Election Monitoring (JAMPPI) said the KPU had not
managed the election professionally.

"The poor registration of voters and poor distribution of
voter cards have caused some one million voters to lose their
rights to vote," Andi said.

Among other violations were the lack of KPPS members, a lack
of reserved ballot papers, the use of fake ballots and officials
intimidating voters. Like Cetro, JAMPPI had also found instances
of the misuse of voter cards and a lack of support for the
disabled.

JAMPPI said about 7 percent to 8 percent of ballot papers in
Banten, Jambi and other provinces were found to be fake.

The misuse of voter cards was discovered in several provinces,
including Maluku, estimated at around 30 percent; South Sulawesi
18.1 percent; North Sulawesi 17.5 percent; and Bengkulu 12
percent.

JAMPPI deployed 12,897 volunteers to monitor the legislative
elections.

Andi called on the KPU to hold re-elections where the
violations and irregularities were high.

The country held the legislative elections to choose members
of the House of Representatives (DPR), the Regional
Representative Council (DPD), Provincial Legislatures (DPRD I)
and Regental/Municipal Legislatures (DPRD II).