Students deployed to monitor election

Tony Hotland, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Indonesian Rectors Forum will deploy thousands of university students across the country as volunteers to monitor the legislative election on Monday to help ensure the poll is free and fair.

The deployment, the second after the last election in 1999, is conducted in collaboration with the United Nations Development Program (UNDP).

On voting day, the volunteers will visit selected polling stations across the country. Each station will be monitored by two students and outside officials assigned by the Regional General Elections Commission (KPUD).

They students will be equipped with special licenses to allow them to cast votes in their assigned voting booths.

The Rector of Trisakti University in Jakarta, Thoby Mutis, said on Saturday the students would monitor the election by taking notes and filling in monitor forms, but would not interfere with the duty of KPUD personnel.

"They will also help count the votes through a parallel vote tabulation system. But this will only be conducted in selected poll stations as a general survey of certain areas," he said after giving instructions to some 1,700 volunteers from his university.

Trisakti University has been appointed by the Rectors Forum as coordinator for Jakarta area.

Ater voting day, each voting area will make a report to be submitted to a forum in Bandung, West Java. The forum plans to announce its report on the implementation of Monday's election on April 10 before submitting it to the General Elections Commission (KPU) to be used as a reference.

On Monday, about 147 million eligible voters are expected to cast their votes to elect members of the House of Representatives (DPR), the Regional Representative Council (DPD), and the provincial and regental legislatures.

In Jakarta, as many as 20 universities will participate in the scheme, dispatching about 7,700 students and field coordinators to 3,362 out of 24,017 poll stations.

The work was an ideal way for students to do something for their country, Thoby told the Trisakti volunteers. "We've got nothing but our good intentions and nothing can stop us," he said.

Thoby said the students from his university had been prepared with 40 hours of training on how to diffuse violence and lessons on democracy and human rights; as well as sessions on monitoring skills.