Register before July, voters told

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The government has asked disgruntled voters who were unable to do their civic duty on Monday to register on time for the presidential election in July.

"They (the unregistered) should register themselves for the presidential election," interim Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Hari Sabarno said after inspecting a polling station in Serang, Banten, on Monday.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) had given until April 4 for all people who were not registered in Monday's vote to get registered.

He also said those who failed to vote on Monday have to register with the subdistrict office by next Monday, April 12 for the direct presidential election on July 5.

Hari called on voters to take the initiative by registering themselves, otherwise they would squander another chance.

The minister was joined by the General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Nazaruddin Syamsuddin, Indonesian Military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar and Banten Governor Djoko Munandar during the inspection.

The unregistered voters were very upset, but Hari insisted that it was only a small percentage of the nation's eligible voters.

The KPU has estimated that just 0.5 percent of over 145 million eligible voters were not registered, due mostly to mistakes blamed on the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

The chancellor of Gadjah Mada University (UGM) Sofian Effendi concurred with Hari, saying the election turnout on Monday would likely be extremely high, when all the numbers came in.

"In the polling stations I visited, it averaged about a 90 percent turnout," he said after observing polling stations in Bantul and Kulonprogo regencies, both in Yogyakarta.

Despite the KPU's statistics, the actual number of unregistered voters could be much higher as reports of those without voter cards continue to come in. The Election Supervisory Committee estimated in North Sumatra alone that about 1.5 million of the 7.2 million potential voters were unregistered. Earlier reports said that some 90 percent of the 2.5 million migrant workers overseas were unregistered.

In Central Sulawesi, over 200,000 voters, or about 14 percent of all potential voters in the province, were denied their political right because they were unregistered, Antara reported.

Central Sulawesi Governor Aminuddin Ponulele said such a situation was inexcusable and the KPU should be blamed.

"It is regrettable that tens of thousands of citizens could not cast ballots today," he told the press in Palu.

He said he had asked KPU staff members to take this situation seriously and settle the problem before the presidential election.

While many eligible voters were unregistered, underaged children were reportedly registered as voters in certain areas.

Chris Wilson and Ganjar, two children in Siwalankerto and Kupang Timur subdistricts in Surabaya, were registered as voters despite the fact that they are under 17 -- the minimum age to vote -- and single.

Anyone who is already married is eligible, regardless of age.

Political analyst Bachtiar Effendy asserted that KPU had to improve. People will not tolerate the same mistakes in the presidential election, which is considered by some to be more important than the legislative election, he said.