Voter registration officers miss 11,000 in Surabaya

Voter registration officers miss 11,000 in Surabaya

SURABAYA, East Java (JP): Some 11,000 students in local Islamic schools eligible to vote in the 1997 general election have been left unregistered.

Syumli Sadli, chairman of the Moslem-based United Development Party's East Java chapter, which has large supporters in the Islamic boarding schools, reproached the provincial registration officers for failing to register the students.

"The officers said they're still waiting for additional registration forms to arrive from Jakarta," Syumli said. "But I wonder why they didn't anticipate the shortage of forms."

The first phase of voter-registration was held between May 1 and May 20. During that initial phase, registration officers went door-to-door to register all eligible voters throughout the country.

A temporary registration list was then made out; those who are not included in the list can register at their subdistrict office.

Those who are still unregistered will also have their chance in the second phase of registration between June 21 and July 15.

A total of 119 million people will be eligible to vote next year. A person is considered eligible if he is aged 17 years or older, or married.

Syumli charged that the registration committee passed over several major pesantren (Islamic boarding schools) including As Sa'idiyah, home to 6,000 students, and As Safi'iyah, which has 5,000 students.

He added that there were other smaller schools whose students were also passed over by the registration committee.

"As far as I know the santri (religious students) in those schools have yet to be registered," he said.

Separately, Governor Basofi Soedirman rejected suggestions that the boarding schools were not visited by the registration committee because they are a known base for the United Development Party.

"That's not true," he said, adding that the students were unregistered simply because of the unexpected shortage of registration forms.

Syumli said that it would be impractical for the thousands of Moslem students to line up at subdistrict offices, which are often located far from their boarding schools.

"How can they come in such large numbers to the subdistrict office to be registered? It would be extremely difficult," Syumli said. (15/mds)