Watchdog holds last poll rehearsal

Watchdog holds last poll rehearsal

JAKARTA (JP): The Independent Election Monitoring Committee
(KIPP) staged its last poll rehearsal with about 70 participants,
mostly students, at Proclamation Monument in Central Jakarta on
Sunday.

"We hope the participating students will inform their friends
about this exercise," said Muflizar, coordinator of the program
and also KIPP's Monitoring Division chairman.

The program, he said, was intended to assess whether the
rehearsal was in line with a regulation issued by the General
Elections Commission (KPU).

"It's also designed to examine the poll watchdog's procedures
in monitoring the polls.

"We have set certain procedures on poll monitoring, and now we
are verifying them," he told The Jakarta Post on the sidelines of
the event.

The poll monitoring group will evaluate the rehearsal. The
results will be used as guidance for its members to monitor the
polls, he added.

Prior to Sunday's program, KIPP held two similar rehearsals
last month at private National University and Jayabaya University
here.

Sunday's event started at 11 a.m. and ran to 1 p.m. The
participants followed KIPP's instruction on observing how to cast
ballots.

Some students made significant mistakes while completing the
ballot form.

Iwan Setiawan, a senior high school student, said he now
understood how to vote in next month's elections.

"I hope I won't be clumsy while filling the ballot," he added.
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