Poll commission revises Jakarta election voter list at 11th hour

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Writing on the wall: A pedestrian passes by street art in Jl. Pemuda, East Jakarta, on Monday. The graffiti painted by the Street Art Peduli Pilkada community suggests that Jakartans should not be worried about the upcoming gubernatorial election but rather choose candidates who will make the city more beautiful.(JP/P.J.Leo)

The electoral commission responsible for holding the upcoming Jakarta gubernatorial election has revised the list of voter rolls less than 48 hours prior to voting day on Wednesday.

In a meeting with representatives from the six candidates for Jakarta’s top posts on Monday, the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) announced that it would eliminate 21,344 ineligible voters, referred to by some as “ghost voters”, from the list of 6,983,692 voters previously announced in early June.

Previously vowing that the voter list would remain unchanged, KPU Jakarta commissioner Aminullah said during the meeting that his commission had to revise the voter list after the Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) meted out sanctions to the poll body last week.

In a verdict read last Friday, the council declared KPU Jakarta chairperson Dahlia Umar guilty of rampant irregularities surrounding the list of voters, and ordered Dahlia and her fellow poll body commissioners to revise it.

“We are obliged by law to revise our list of voters because of the verdict. However, we are confident that the elimination of 21,344 ineligible voters from our previous list will not affect preparations for the election, which will still be held as previously scheduled on July 11,” Aminullah told representatives of the six candidates.

The decision, however, was rejected by all of the representatives of the six candidates who argued that there were still many “ghost voters” outside the KPU Jakarta’s list of ineligible voters of 21,344 citizens.

“That number was your list, not ours. We have a list of people who are registered in two or more polling stations, but we see that they are not included in the KPU’s list of ineligible voters [of 21,344 citizens],” said Denny Iskandar, a representative of the Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama pair.

Denny also suggested that the KPU Jakarta delay the election so the poll body would have more time to fix its problematic voter list.

Fatah Ramli, a representative from the Alex Noerdin-Nono Sampono pair, also demanded the election to be delayed.

“Can an election be viewed as fair if its list of voters is tarnished? With such a voter list, I am personally unsure that an election can be declared fair and transparent,” he said.

Aminullah, however, shunned requests from representatives of the Jokowi-Ahok and Alex-Nono pairs, who demanded the election be delayed. He told the candidates to accept the imperfect list of voters, saying that a voter list “could not be 100 percent unblemished”. “If the election’s result turns out to be unsatisfactory for them, we are ready to face possible lawsuits,” he said.

Dahlia, meanwhile, downplayed fears that the list of voters would taint the election’s outcome.

“Even if a person is registered in two polling stations, the person will not be able to vote for a second time as [his or her] finger will already be marked with ink, which cannot be removed instantly,” she said.

In a separate development, the KPU Jakarta also announced on Monday that five out of the six governor candidates, with the exception of independent Hendardji Soepandji, had sent their second financial reports detailing the origins of their campaign funds.

The incumbent Governor Fauzi Bowo tops the list of campaign donations, amounting to Rp 62.6 billion (US$6.64 million), followed by Jokowi with Rp 27.5 billion, Alex with Rp 24.6 billion and Hidayat Nur Wahid with Rp 21.5 billion. Independent candidate Faisal Basri is at the bottom on the list, earning only Rp 4.1 billion for his campaign-related activities. (sat)