Sleepy Euro fans stumble to polls

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.