Registration cut-off set for Saturday

Registration cut-off set for Saturday

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Saturday is the deadline for unregistered voters to report to
local election officials, while registered voters are given until
one day before April 5 to acquire their required cards.

Mulyana W. Kusumah of the General Elections Commission (KPU),
however, said that unregistered voters would be able to exercise
their constitutional right only if it was found that the Central
Statistics Agency had failed to register them, or if their
residential documents proved that they should have been
registered as voters.

A few days ahead of the poll, slated for April 5, the
commission is facing increasing criticism not only for its
failure to deliver all election materials on time, but also
because scores of people may be denied their right to vote.

The number of eligible voters reached 147,494,478 as of March
14 according to the Central Statistics Agency (BPS) which
conducted a census prior to registration.

It has been estimated that the number of unregistered voters
stands at 0.5 percent. Election supervisors in North Sumatra
alone estimate the figure in the province at 1.5 million.

The commission's deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said that
registered voters who had not acquired their cards had until
Sunday to present their identity cards to the local working
committee for polling stations (KPPS). The KPPS would then verify
their documents with their list of eligible voters.

The KPPS should have informed all eligible voters to exercise
their voting rights in their specific polling stations by Friday.

BPS head Soedarti Surbakti claimed on Friday that her office
had conducted voter registration from April 1 to May 15 2003
across the country, except for Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (until
last December) and Papua (until last May).

"Those who are still unregistered were not at homes or refused
to be registered at that time," Soedarti was quoted by Antara as
saying.

Commission chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin has said that
additional ballots were not intended for people who "refused to
be registered". The KPU earlier announced that citizens could
also report to local election officials if they had not been
registered.

Meanwhile, about 200 students of the Indonesian Muslim
Students Association (HMI) Ambon chapter and Darussalam
University staged a protest in front of KPU local office in
Ambon, demanding an explanation for the 20,000 voters still
unregistered.

"The KPU should responsible for the unregistered voters. If
they cannot solve the problem, the KPU should be dissolved," said
Rofik Akbar Afifudin of HMI.

In Kendari, Southeast Sulawesi, the local KPU office
registered hundreds of new voters after conducting a new voter
identification.

"However we did not accept them all since many lacked accurate
data, for instance their registration forms were not signed by
the local authorities," KPU Kendari chief Tumbo Saranani said,

In Kadia subdistrict, Kendari, only 10 voters among 410
eligible voters were reportedly registered for the election while
dozens of eligible voters in many subdistricts remained
unregistered.