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).