Verification of eligible voters

Verification of eligible voters

JAKARTA: The General Elections Commission (KPU) and the
Central Statistics Agency (BPS) have started working to verify
data from national and compare that to the data for eligible
voters.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said on Thursday that the
verification process began on Oct. 1 and will end on Nov. 15.

The census, according to Ramlan, would enable BPS and KPU to
check whether or not all eligible people in the country had been
registered as voters.

Eligible voters are all Indonesian citizens who have proper
documentation and identification and have reached the age of 17
or have been married.

According to Ramlan, BPS officials would not conduct the
verification door-to-door, but by checking existing data with
local leaders such as neighborhood heads and village chiefs.

KPU member Valina Singka Subakti said her office would secure
advertising space about the verification of the census on four
television stations in the country: TVRI, SCTV, RCTI and MTV, as
well as a number of radio stations.

Based on the population and eligible voters census, the
country's population stood at about 214.5 million, while the
eligible voters for the 2004 elections reached about 142 million
people. -- JP