Voter registration drive to be extended by two weeks

Voter registration drive to be extended by two weeks

Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Central Statistics Agency (BPS) has formally asked the
General Elections Commission (KPU) to extend the voter
registration deadline by another two weeks, saying it will be
unable to complete the process by Wednesday as scheduled.

Agus Suherman, the BPS official in charge of the nationwide
census and voter registration process, blamed the delay in part
on complacent field workers.

He told The Jakarta Post that as of Tuesday the program had
reached 70.78 percent of designated areas.

He said his field workers would need until the first week of
May to complete the demographic data on population in 120
regencies, while in another 54 regencies the registration would
not finish until the second week of May. Agus did not identify
the regencies.

Apart from the failure to finish collecting the data, Agus
said field workers in some 35 regencies in Central Java had not
reported their registration status.

"If we exclude Aceh, we have reached about 80.31 percent
registration coverage, and without Aceh and Papua we have reached
about 83.18 percent," he said.

Papua and Aceh are two remaining areas that have been given
another month for the field officers to complete the voter
registration process due to the political situation in both
provinces.

There is a possibility that the landmark direct legislative
and presidential elections might not be able to be held in the
country's easternmost and western provinces of Papua and Aceh due
to security difficulties resulting from separatist movements
there. Security problems have also been hampering the
registration process.

Ramlan Surbakti, the deputy chairman of the KPU, had earlier
played down the possibility that the delays would affect the
overall process of collecting demographic data, which is slated
to be competed by December.

The result of the registration process will determine the
number of seats in the House of Representatives. The data will
also be used for the purpose of issuing a single personal
identification number to every citizen.

The nationwide census and the voter registration drive has
been underway simultaneously since April 1, and will cover an
estimated 130 million people.

The legislative elections will take place on April 5, followed
by a two-stage presidential election slated to take place between
June and August.

Agus said his agency would be unable to meet the April 30
deadline due to a lack of motivation and training among field
officers.

The BPS, he said, had discovered that many of its officers had
farmed the work out to untrained officers resulting in a failure
to comply with the set procedures and to record the required
information.

"We have found in several areas that field officers have been
complacent in carrying out their work. There have also been cases
where the officers failed to properly filled out the registration
forms," he said.

Each officer is paid Rp 500 (US 56 cents) for every person
registered. One officer is expected to register between 1,200 and
1,500 people, earning him between Rp 600,000 and Rp 750,000.

"We never imagined it, but registering people in rich
neighborhoods in metropolitan areas is the toughest challenge as
the field officers often have to get past guard dogs and security
guards," said Agus.