Commentary: An incomplete idiot’s guide to voting on April 9

Endy M. Bayuni ,  The Jakarta Post ,  JAKARTA   |  Wed, 03/25/2009 10:09 AM  |  Headlines

Many of the 171 million registered voters in Indonesia will likely find voting on April 9 a daunting task. Some help, or a system, is urgently needed to make sure that they get it right on voting day.

One major challenge is that the national elections commission (KPU) has introduced a new voting system whereby people are encouraged to tick on the ballot paper the party or the candidate (or both) of their choice. This is a departure from previous elections where voters punched a hole on the symbol of the party of their choice.

The KPU is now working hard to familiarize voters with this untried system, but a number of recent mock votes have showed that up to 40 percent of voters still don’t understand. Let’s hope that this problem will be resolved by April 9.

As if that is not difficult enough, voters have to choose from what seems like an endless list a candidate from the party they want to represent them in the House of Representatives (DPR), the Regional Representative Council (DPD), the provincial legislative council (DPRD1) and the regency legislative council (DPRD2).

Here is the rub: There are 38 political parties contesting these elections at the national and local levels (44 parties if you are in Aceh). To confuse matters, the total number of candidates contesting the elections at the national and local levels is estimated to be 800,000 (even the KPU is so confused that it could not give an exact figure).

Today, the biggest question on the minds of many voters, especially those who are still undecided is who do you give your vote to?

Most Indonesians will have four ballot papers to cast (three in Jakarta).

As an example, in the South/Central Jakarta voting district, seven seats are up for grabs and 38 political parties are fielding 164 candidates, all vying for my one single vote. I will have another ballot paper for the more than 40 candidates hoping to become one of four DPD representatives from Jakarta, and another paper for my representative to the DPRD Jakarta.

More and more people this year say they will be giving their votes to candidates rather than parties, a reflection of their distrust of political parties more so than of the merit of the politicians.

One polling survey conducted in February shows that 37 percent of the people said they would be voting for a candidate. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) says its own internal survey found the figure was as high as 50 percent. The number of people voting for candidates will likely be higher by April 9.

What sets this year apart from previous general elections is that it brings a closer bond between voters and elected politicians. Voters have a greater say in deciding who will serve in the House of Representatives and the lower regional councils, a power that has hitherto been in the hands of party bosses. This also guarantees that elected politicians owe their allegiance to the voters and not to their parties.

Those who are concerned about how the country is run for the next five years will want to make sure that they exercise their democratic rights wisely. They want to make sure they elect the right leaders, and therefore make sure they vote for the right people.

The candidates know this too. Most campaigns have been more about educating voters on how to find the name of the candidates from the massive ballot papers, rather than about why people should vote for them.

Without trying to influence others on how they should vote, here is a system that I have worked out for myself as voting day gets closer. It’s a process of eliminating parties and candidates I find most offensive. This effectively simplifies the choices available to me.

The first to go are those parties that have caused me to spend hours in the traffic jam as they and their supporters held campaigns and rallies in the streets. This has already happened once and I suspect it will happen several times more over the remainder of the election campaign period. One party boss did publicly apologize to motorists who were inconvenienced by the congestion, so his party is back in my list, if only because no other parties have been this considerate.

Next to go will be those candidates and parties whose posters and photos I find to be obnoxiously placed, on trees, on street corners, and some even pasted on our neighborhood walls without our permission.

And then there are candidates who are corrupt, or were implicated with corruption, or simply
have poor track records serving in the House. This means just about everybody who is seeking reelection, going by the poor performance of the outgoing House members.

If you are gender sensitive and want to give your vote to women candidates, you already eliminate two-thirds of the names from the list.

As the list gets shorter, I will Google some of the candidates. As a simple rule, those whose names don’t turn up anything are not worth my time and vote. Those who do just might, depending on what stories turn up.

If you are still confused, or your list remains long, consider joining many others who are leaving town to take advantage of the extended weekend holiday beginning Thursday April 9. Not voting may not be desirable, but it is a democratic choice.

Whichever way, have fun.

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