Sleepy Euro fans stumble to polls
Bambang Nurbianto, Jakarta
The Euro 2004 final, including its celebration, ended less than three hours before the official start of voting at the country's nearly 600,000 polling stations at 7.a.m. Many voters and committee members of the polling stations did not want to miss the soccer final, broadcast live by a private TV station.
Sleepy committee members of polling station No. 002 in Sukabumi Utara subdistrict, West Jakarta, had to open the polling station on time as required by the General Elections Committee (KPU).
"When we opened the polling station at 7 a.m., only 10 or so people came. Perhaps, many of them watched the soccer game last night," said Djazuli, a committee member at the polling station.
He said there were 285 eligible voters registered at the polling station, but by the time the polling station close at 1 p.m., only 229 people had exercised their right.
"We are really sleepy but it is our obligation to serve voters," Djazuli told The Jakarta Post.
Two meters from the polling station, a middle-aged woman sold fruit cocktails, coffee and cakes. Voters, most of them neighbors, bought her food. They chatted, and some of them boasted that their favorite candidate would win at the station.
For many Jakartans such a get-together was a luxury, because they could converse with their neighbors, many of whom they had not spoken with for a long time because of their busy schedules.
When voting was closed at 1 p.m., the counting process started. Many looked disappointed when 64 ballot papers were declared invalid because they had not been unfolded fully when voters pierced them.
In the polling station, Amien Rais-Siswono Yudohusodo garnered the most votes with 91, followed by Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono- Jusuf Kalla 40, Megawati Soekarnoputri-Hasyim Muzadi 19, Hamzah Haz-Agum Gumelar 8, and Wiranto-Solahuddin Wahid 7.
"If they had pieced the ballot paper properly, I've no doubt that SBY (Susilo) would have won here," Maryati, a strong supporter of Susilo, complained.