Many N. Sumatrans oblivious to gubernatorial elections

Apriadi Gunawan ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Medan   |  Tue, 03/25/2008 11:20 AM  |  The Archipelago

Many people in North Sumatra remain uninformed of the province's gubernatorial elections scheduled for April 16, 2008, a spokesman of the North Sumatra provincial administration, Eddy Sofyan, said Saturday.

About one third of the province's 8 million eligible voters are oblivious of the upcoming elections, Eddy said after holding a number of meetings to disseminate awareness of the elections across a number of regions.

He said the dissemination was conducted jointly with officials of the gubernatorial election desk of the North Sumatra provincial administration and the North Sumatra chapter of the General Elections Commission (KPUD).

Eddy said based on a survey he conducted during his visits to the region, about 37.5 percent of the province's total population, especially including those living in eastern coastal areas, did not know about the election.

He said the elections, which would cost up to Rp 383 billion (US$28.10 million) to hold, would be meaningless were the number of uninformed to remain high.

According to KPUD's data, of the province's 12.08 million population, 8.48 million are eligible to vote.

Eddy said the low number of informed potential voters proved the dissemination process had not been conducted properly, especially in remote areas.

Upon hearing of the numbers, head of North Sumatra's KPUD Irham Buana Nasution said Saturday he had worked hard to raise awareness of the election.

He said election information had been spread via various means, including banners, leaflets, calenders and fliers.

"KPUD cannot work individually to disseminate information about the election. It should have been supported by other parties, including gubernatorial candidates and the parties that back them up," Irham said.

According to a survey conducted by the Socio-political Science School of the University of North Sumatra, nearly 35 percent of the province's eligible voters would abstain from voting.

Arif Nasution, the dean of the school, said the result of the survey was stunning because the number of people unwilling to cast their votes would be higher than the 24 percent of eligible voters who abstained during the presidential election in 2004.

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