Regulation on unregistered voters sought

The Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) has called on the government to issue a regulation in-lieu-of-law (Perppu) that will enable unregistered voters to cast their ballots in the upcoming presidential election on July 8.
 
“Issuance of a Perppu is the fastest and most feasible solution to protect the voters’ constitutional rights,” Cetro senior researcher Refly Harun told a conference Friday.
 
Cetro has drafted a Perppu which recommends the use identity cards as a requirement for the unregistered voters to cast ballots.
 
“Unregistered voters should be able to cast their votes as long as they show legitimate identity cards, such as Indonesian citizen ID cards, family cards, passports, or drivers’ licenses,” Refly said.
 
Refly said he understood the risk of such a policy as many Indonesians might posses more than one ID cards.
 
“It is already a public secret that there are citizens who hold more than one ID cards and they may be mobilized to vote more than once. However, we need to prepare a safety mechanism to prevent such violations,” he said.
 
The preventive measures include supply of high quality ink to mark the index fingers of voters after they exercise their right, he added. (fmb)