The 2009 legislative election could be delayed or severely flawed following chaotic preparations on the part of the General Elections Commission (KPU) in organizing the crucial national event, poll monitoring groups warned Thursday.
The government was also to blame for being too slow in disbursing election funds to the KPU, said the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), the People's Voter Education Network (JPPR) and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
"We may have a much lower quality than the 2004 election; or worse, we may not have an election at all if the KPU continues with such clumsy work," Cetro executive director Hadar N. Gumay said at a discussion.
The national legislative election is scheduled for April 9, 2009, with the presidential election sometime in October.
Hadar said the KPU's substandard work was apparent in the way it prepared the preliminary list of eligible voters (DPS), which he added was crucial in determining the quality and acceptability of the election by the public and political parties.
"Although Cetro did not conduct a formal audit on the registration process, we found randomly that the majority of villages and subdistricts across the country have yet to publicly release or update the lists," he said.
Hadar quoted a survey conducted by the Institute of Research, Education and Information of Social and Economic Affairs (LP3ES) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in 447 villages in 33 provinces between August 7 and 10, which shows more than half of voter lists released by villages and subdistricts throughout the country contained obsolete data.
The lists mostly mirrored data on voters for the 2009 legislative election, provided by the Home Ministry in April, the survey showed.
"The voter list determines how many ballots, ballot boxes and polling stations should be provided. We may end up overspending. Furthermore, invalid data invites protests from participants, leading to chaos," Hadar said.
JPPR national coordinator Jeirry Sumampow criticized the government for apparently making a deliberate attempt to slow down the election process by not disbursing the money needed by the KPU.
"I don't know what their motive is, but the KPU must have the guts to force the government to quickly disburse the money by either striking or threatening to resign. What can they do without money?" Jeirry said.
He said some KPU members complained to him they had to delay many activities because of a lack of funds from the government.
While similarly slamming the government for delaying the fund disbursement, Hadar also lashed out at the KPU for being slow in enacting regulations.
"According to our research, the KPU needs at least 48 regulations. But now they only have 20. We are still waiting, for instance, on a regulation on election funding," Hadar said.
CSIS researcher Nico Harjanto underlined the need for the KPU to start educating voters, with procedures and regulations for balloting much more complex than in 2004.
"Not only does the KPU need to tell the public where, when and how they can vote, but also why they should vote," Nico said.
"Education about the importance of voting and democracy is crucial in reducing the number of non-voters, which was recently on the rise in many direct regional elections."
