Registration lapses must cease: Analysts

Registration lapses must cease: Analysts

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Political analysts called on the General Elections Commission
(KPU) on Saturday to ensure that voters who were not registered
for the general election be registered in time to cast their
ballots in the presidential election.

"The KPU should improve the registration for the presidential
election scheduled for July 5, and the possible runoff on Sept.
20," political analyst Bachtiar Effendy said.

"Voters may not tolerate the same mistakes in the presidential
election, as they will consider it more important than the
legislative election," he said.

The legislative election will take place on April 5, but
thousands of eligible voters have complained that they were never
registered and thus are unable to exercise their constitutional
rights.

The KPU estimates that 0.5 percent of the over 147 million
eligible voters were not yet registered, which the commission
blamed on errors by the Central Statistics Agency (BPS).

The real number of unregistered voters, however, could be much
higher, as reports of unregistered voters continue to come in
from around the country.

The Election Supervisory Committee estimated that in North
Sumatra alone about 1.5 million people would be denied the
opportunity to votes.

Also, Minister of Manpower and Transmigration Jacob Nuwa Wea
said on Saturday just 10 percent of 2.5 million migrant workers
overseas had been registered to vote. He blamed this failure on
the poor coordination between the KPU, Indonesian embassies and
the home ministry.

"We also fear that a bulk of registered voters will not be
able to vote at polling stations set up in embassies and
consulates general," he told The Jakarta Post.

In Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, the local General Elections
Commission (KPUD) said there were over 8,500 would-be voters in
the province who had not been registered.

In Pelalawan regency, Riau province, the KPUD said that two
days ahead of the elections, almost 40 percent of voter cards had
yet to be distributed.

KPUD chairman Edi Sabli said the cards could not reach voters
in time due to a lack of workers to deliver them.

In the capital of Southeast Sulawesi, Kendari, the local
elections commission is ready to face legal action by over 1,200
eligible voters who were not registered.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti reiterated on Saturday
that only voters with voter cards or those who could produce
letters from their local working committee for polling stations
(KPPS) could vote.

"Sunday is the last day for unregistered voters who have not
obtained the KPPS letter to get their name on the list of
eligible voters," he said.

J. Kristiadi of the Centre for Strategic and International
Studies expressed optimism that unregistered voters would not
obstruct the polls.

He said the public had grown politically mature over the years
and had begun to perceive that general elections were not the
only avenue for them to express their political convictions.

Kristiadi said the number of unregistered voters was within a
tolerable limit, as the KPU was undertaking one of the most
complex elections ever to be held in the world.

"Moreover, there is not much we can do one day before the
election," he said.