Problems with voter roll are ‘beyond control’ of local KPU

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The chief of the Jakarta Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu Jakarta) is backing the Jakarta Elections Commission’s (KPU Jakarta) chief, who is facing an ethics hearing for violations in compiling the city’s voter list.

Ramdansyah, the chairman of the local Panwaslu, said that the KPU Jakarta had done its best.

“They have been working according to regulation. The problems and irregularities that occurred were beyond their control,” Ramdansyah told a hearing of the Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) on Tuesday in Central
Jakarta.

The hearing was convened after representatives of three gubernatorial candidates filed complaints.

The candidates — Joko “Jokowi” Widodo, Alex Noerdin and Hidayat — alleged that the commission violated regulations by not resolving irregularities in the voter rolls and by not providing all information on the roll to candidates.

The Jakarta Elections Commission was also accused of illegally modifying the final voter list.

Ramdansyah attributed inaccuracies on the initial voter list to faulty information from the Jakarta Population and Civil Registration Agency, which he said had provided reports with many duplicate names and inconsistent data.

“The KPU Jakarta received bad data; it would be impossible for them to come up with perfectly good data,” Ramdansyah said.

In January, the agency gave the Jakarta Elections Commission a list of 7,545,989 potential voters for verification, 800,000 of whom were deleted by the local KPU, while 300,000 were added to produce a preliminary voter list with 7,044,991 names in April.

After a second round of verification, the Jakarta Elections Commission announced a final voter list in June with 6,982,179 names.

KPU Jakarta chairperson Dahliah Umar said that the commission had not altered the number of people listed on the commission’s final voter list, although admitting that the list had some errors.

Dahliah said that the list still contained duplicate names due to people with multiple ID cards and addresses.

She added that the KPU Jakarta had marked duplicate names on the list and had ordered that duplicate names be given one voting invitation and one voter card to avoid multiple voting.

The DKPP postponed announcing its decision on the allegations, saying it needed to hear more from representatives of the Jakarta Elections Supervisory Committee.

“We will deliver our verdict next week, before Election Day,” the DKPP’s chairman and former Constitutional Court chief justice Jimly Asshiddique, said.

While the ethics council does not have the authority to change the voter list, it can sanction KPU and Panwaslu members found guilty of ethics breaches.

Meanwhile, the KPU Jakarta intends to deliver voting invitation to eligible voters by Thursday.

“The documents have now been distributed to our district level offices,” Aminullah, the KPU Jakarta’s voter data chief said on Tuesday.

Aminullah said that voters who did not receive invitations and voting cards by Thursday should immediately contact the KPU Jakarta and their polling station.

The Jakarta Police are planning to deploy officers to secure 296 “vulnerable” polling stations on the Election Day an attempt to prevent brawling and fraud, spokesman Sr. Comr. Rikwanto said told reporters at a press conference
on Tuesday.

Rikwanto said that police officers had surveyed the more than 15,000 polling stations in Jakarta, ranking 39 stations as “more vulnerable”, 257 as “vulnerable”, and 14,815 stations as “safe”.

“One officer will be deployed to monitor every three or four ‘safe’ stations, while each ‘vulnerable’ station will have one officer,” he said.

Rikwanto said that the vulnerable stations were located in detention centers or areas where the supporters of different candidates often fought during elections. (aml)

Campaign Schedule for Wednesday, July 4
 
Zone A (East Jakarta, North Jakarta, Thousand Islands)
• Hidayat -Didik J. Rachbini, Faisal Basri-Biem Benjamin, Alex Noerdin-Nono Sampono

Zone B (South Jakarta, West Jakarta, Central Jakarta)
• Fauzi Bowo-Nachrowi Ramli, Hendardji Soepandji-Ahmad Riza, Joko Widodo-Basuki Tjahaja Purnama