KPUD vows to improve for July election

The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Thu, 06/04/2009 9:53 AM  |  City

With more voters registering for the upcoming presidential election, the Jakarta Regional Elections Commission (KPUD) has pledged to manage it better than it did April’s legislative elections.

“Not only 38 political parties but also almost 3,000 individual candidates contested in the previous legislative elections. Since only three candidates will contest in the upcoming [presidential] election, we are optimistic that the elections process will be under control,” KPUD member Dahliah Umar said.

Dahliah, who also chairs the agency’s supervisory group on election campaigns, said the KPUD was optimistic it would complete vote counting faster.

“The presidential election will use much simpler vote counting procedures than those used in the legislative elections. So, although the number of voters in the city has increased, we are still upbeat we will complete vote counting within the schedule,” she said.  

In the 2009 legislative elections, the KPUD recorded 7,026,772 registered voters in the city and managed more than 16,000 polling stations (TPS) in 44 districts. It, however, found less than 60 percent of registered voters actually cast a ballot.

For the upcoming July 8 presidential elections, the KPUD has registered 641,286 additional voters.

The KPUD became the target of harsh criticism for its handling of the April 9 legislative elections.

The KPUD said it would count all votes within two weeks but extended its own deadline several times after it had difficulty settling disputes between parties and polling officials.

Jakarta’s Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) found that almost 1,000 TPS violated existing procedures on vote counting.

After a series of delays and several walkouts from representatives from a dozen of political parties, the KPUD was finally able to wrap up vote counting on May 2 and announced the winners of four Regional Representative Council (DPD) seats and 94 city council seats.

To prevent any similar occurrences, the KPUD is working harder to educate polling officers on vote counting procedures.

“We admit that the qualification of our polling officers is still below our expectations, but we are expecting them to perform better in the presidential elections since the vote counting procedure will be easier to understand,” she said.

Three presidential candidates are running in the upcoming elections: Incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, who is backed by a giant coalition of 23 political parties, former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is supported by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the Great Indonesia Movement (Gerindra) Party, and vice president Jusuf Kalla, who is backed by the Golkar Party and the People’s Conscience Party (Hanura).    

To avoid traffic congestion and disruptions to the public order during campaigning, the KPUD has restricted campaigning to the city’s main thoroughfares including Jl. Thamrin, Jl. Medan Merdeka Utara, Jl. Medan Merdeka Timur, Jl. Medan Merdeka Selatan, Jl. Medan Merdeka Barat and Jl. Diponegoro.

Dahliah, however, expects Jakarta will see less crowded campaigns than those for the legislative campaigns because presidential candidates will instead focus on visiting their constituents outside Jakarta. (hwa)

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