M

ore Indonesians headed to the polling stations to cast their votes in this year'€™s election compared to the previous election, in what analysts said was a positive trend for the nation'€™s democracy.

A quick count jointly conducted by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and the Cyrus Network, showed that voter turnout reached 75.3 percent. The figure was 70.99 percent in 2009.

Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) executive director Titi Anggraini said the number signaled a turning point and a ray of hope for future elections in the country.

'€œThis is positive because we all know that increasing voter turnout, which has been declining, is not an easy task,'€ she told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.

This year'€™s voter turnout was especially remarkable considering the number of eligible voters also increased, according to Titi.

'€œMore eligible voters means the workload [of election organizers] has also increased,'€ she said.

'€œWe have to laud the General Elections Commission [KPU] as
the election organizer as well as election participants who have been pushing for greater voter turnout.'€

Moreover, the trend also refuted the predictions of many analysts.

'€œVoter turnout increased amid many predictions from experts who said it would decline to 60 percent,'€ Titi said.

Such predictions were based on the belief that the public distrusted the government due to the failure of law enforcers to root out endemic corruption that had long plagued the country.

The number of individuals choosing not to vote has risen consistently from one election to another in the post-reformation era.

Based on KPU data, in the 1999 election about 10.4 percent of eligible voters did not vote.

In 2004 the figure rose dramatically to 23.3 percent in the legislative election and 22.4 percent in the presidential election.

In 2009, the number of non-voters increased further to 29.01 percent in the legislative election and 27.8 percent in the presidential election.

In 2004 and 2009, non-voters outnumbered the amount of votes garnered by both winning political parties and presidential candidates. Given how this year'€™s voter turnout reversed that trend, Titi hoped voter turnout in future elections would continue to rise.

'€œMy hope is for this year'€™s voter turnout to serve as a turning point in terms of participation and the quality of the election. Not to mention that we will enter a new era of government without the rule of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono,'€ she said.

KPU commissioner Sigit Pamungkas said it was an outstanding feat for the commission.

'€œThe main thing we have worked is how to stop voter turnout declining further,'€ he told the Post. '€œThere had been a strong notion that voter participation would decline again this year.'€

Sigit said this year'€™s increase was a result of the efforts of all elements of society, which needed to be appreciated.