West Irian Jaya regencies ready to hold first simultaneous elections

West Irian Jaya regencies ready to hold first simultaneous elections

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

After twice being delayed, regencies in the newly established West
Irian Jaya province, except Raja Ampat regency, are ready to hold
simultaneous regental elections on Aug. 29, said a top poll
official in the province.

"Preparations have been going well except for the Raja Ampat
regency whose poll committee has called for another delay," said
Regina Sauyai, the chief of West Irian Jaya General Elections
Commission (KPU).

Chief of Raja Ampat General Elections Commission, Kabori
Mayalibit, said that the election in the regency had to be
delayed for a couple of weeks as enrollment of eligible voters
had not been completed. Data on eligible voters was only
available in seven out of 10 districts in the regency and the
committee needed more time to collect the remaining data on
eligible voters, said Mayalibit.

"The committee can only produce more ballot papers after data
on eligible voters in the remaining districts are completed,"
said Mayalibit. The election in the regency will be contested by
four pairs of candidates for the position of Regent and Vice
Regent.

Unlike Raja Ampat, other regencies were ready to go ahead with
the elections, including Teluk Wondama regency, the partition of
Manokwari regency with a population of 14,635.

All election supplies such as ballot papers have been
distributed to polling stations across the regency, an official
at a local election committee said on Saturday.

Secretary of the Teluk Wondama regency, Marini Ortisan, said
that there were 9,339 persons eligible to vote at the 69 polling
stations in the regency.

The elections in the six regencies -- Teluk Wondama, Raja
Ampat, Teluk Bintuni, South Sorong, Kaimana and Fakfak -- were
slated to be held in June along with the West Irian Jaya
provincial election. But the elections were delayed to July 28
due to poor preparations and delayed again until Aug. 29 for the
same reason.

While a certain date has been set for the regental elections,
elections for the position of governor in West Irian Jaya has
been delayed indefinitely.

West Irian Jaya province, which was established in 2002, is a
partition of Papua province. The establishment of West Irian Jaya
province has attracted controversy with many considering it in
violation of the Special Autonomy Law.