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Evacuees to get own polling stations
A thankless job: Workers sort and fold ballot papers for this yearâs general election at the former arrivals hall of Polonia International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra
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A thankless job: Workers sort and fold ballot papers for this yearâs general election at the former arrivals hall of Polonia International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra. Some 250 workers have been hired to sort and fold 5.2 million ballot papers for the April 9 legislative election. (JP/Apriadi Gunawan) (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
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span class="inline inline-none">A thankless job: Workers sort and fold ballot papers for this year's general election at the former arrivals hall of Polonia International Airport in Medan, North Sumatra. Some 250 workers have been hired to sort and fold 5.2 million ballot papers for the April 9 legislative election. (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
The Karo General Elections Commission (KPUD) has confirmed that victims of the Mount Sinabung eruption will be able to cast their votes in the April 9 legislative election. KPUD officials said they would set up polling stations (TPS) near the Sinabung evacuee camps in North Sumatra in the event the evacuees were still taking shelter at the camps on election day.
Karo KPUD chairman Benjamin Pinem said there were 9,666 eligible voters among the evacuees residing in the camps. According to him, the evacuees hailed from 14 villages in the danger zone located within a 5-kilometer radius of Mt. Sinabung and that they could exercise their right to vote on
April 9.
'We plan to build 29 special polling stations 500 meters around the campsite for the voters,' Benjamin told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
He said the evacuees would select legislative candidates according to their areas of origin and that the KPUD would group the voters by village to ensure that they voted at the right TPS.
For example, 1,758 voters from Guru Kinayan village housed at six evacuee camps would have their own polling station. Benjamin said this would prevent their votes from being counted at other stations.
'To accommodate the 1,758 voters from Guru Kinayan four TPS will be set up close to their camps,' said Benjamin. He acknowledged that the plan had yet to be approved by the General Elections Commission (KPU) while no technical directives for the evacuees had been received.
'We received the KPU's circular on the elections but not any technical directives,' added Benjamin, hoping that such technical instructions would be issued soon to facilitate final election preparations.
Karo regency spokesman Jhonson Tarigan said evacuees would most likely not be allowed to return to their villages until after April 9 as Mt. Sinabung was still at 'alert' status.
'We hope the evacuees can exercise their voting rights as scheduled,' he added.
The number of evacuees at the camps, according to Jhonson, totaled 15,864 people, including 899 children under 5 years, 148 pregnant women and 1,614 elderly from 17 villages and two hamlets in the danger zone of Mt. Sinabung.
