Abstaintion may reach 45 percent in S. Sumatera: NGO

Khairul Saleh ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Palembang   |  Sun, 06/28/2009 4:25 PM  |  National

An NGO has said that South Sumatera may see an abstention rate of 45 percent in the July 8 presidential elections as the areas poor are skeptical of the benifits of voting.

Riduan AR, head of the Executive Board Communication Forum for a Prosperous South Sumatera (Fokkus), said his organization was expecting 2. 6 million out of the areas total 5. 3 million eligible voters not to vote in the election.

“Most of the non-voters are marginalized people who stay in big cities. Unfortunately, no presidential candidate has taken a firm standpoint to help them cope with poverty and this creates skepticism among the people,” Riduan told The Jakarta Post.

He added that this number was the result of a recent survey of 2,000 poor people in the area.

“In anticipation of the possible large number of non-voters or golput, we will coordinate with related institutions and give them knowledge on election,” he said.

Head of the province's Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), Ruslan Ismail, said the candidates platforms were another reason for the high number of expected abstainers.

“There has not been any hopefuls who offer special programs for each community group, like what happened during the previous elections. This has brought the percentage of non-voters above 20 percent,” Ruslan said.

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