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.