Voter registration started, officers admit making errors

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Becoming a field officer to collect voter data for the 2004 general elections is a new experience for Sunarwati, a resident of Bendungan Hilir, Central Jakarta. Normally a clerk for an integrated health service post, the 36-year-old therefore has to spend more time mastering voter registration procedures.

Along with around 9,600 officers under the coordination of the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), Sunarwati started a month-long registration program for voters on Tuesday for the 2004 general elections. The current voter registration also aims to obtain a single database for the nation's population.

It took her almost an hour to fill out a form for a household consisting of four members. She made a number of mistakes, using an eraser to change incorrect entries.

Sunarwati was also dependent on the assistance given by her fellow officer Suryati to clarify a number of questions before she canvassed residents.

"This is my first foray into the work of population census, therefore I am still in the dark about some of its methods," she told The Jakarta Post.

She attributed her frequent errors to the lack of training provided by the BPS.

"The BPS only held two days of training, which I think is not enough, since voter registration officers mostly don't have a statistical background whatsoever," she said, adding that most of her fellow officers were only high school graduates.

Suryati, who was assigned to conduct voter registration in more densely-populated neighborhood in Bendungan Hilir, said that although officers in the field were provided with enough time to complete their tasks, she assumed they would only come up with meager results.

"Most of the residents in this neighborhood are street vendors who peddle during the day.

"This means that we can only register them from noon until night time," she said.

A resident of Bendungan Hilir, Atikah, 24, told the Post that the current procedure was too cumbersome.

During the registration, she had to busy herself producing a family card, birth certificate, marriage license and other documents bearing the identity of her household members.

"Voter registration was much easier in the last general election. An officer just asked a few questions, wrote some information and handed us a yellow registration card," she said.

When asked about whether or not she had prior knowledge about the voter registration, she said: "I don't know if the registration starts today. I didn't see any ads on TV about the process."

Separately, head of the Jakarta statistics agency, Masni Rani, told reporters that there were around six million people in Jakarta who were expected to vote in the election.

"This is an increase from the figure for the 1999 election, which stood at around five million," he was quoted as saying by Antara.

He also said that on April 30, the BPS was expected to hold a census for the homeless population of Jakarta.

"We will come late at night to search for those who live by the roadsides and under bridges," he said.