G

orontalo and West Kalimantan provinces were considered the country'€™s best in terms of ballot participation levels during the legislative election on April 9, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has reported.

Gorontalo reaped the highest voter turnout nationwide, with 81.37 percent of its 813,675 eligible voters casting their ballots, and saw an increase of 2 percent compared to the 79 percent turnout achieved in the legislative election five years ago.

The number of invalid voters, including abstainers, was low, at only 4.06 percent.

Gorontalo General Elections Commission (KPUD) head Muhammad N. Tuli told The Jakarta Post that the high voter turnout demonstrated the level of political awareness among voters in the province.

Of the province'€™s six regencies and mayoralties, the highest voter participation of 88.25 percent was recorded in Bone Bolango regency, where 93,789 percent of 106,250 eligible voters exercised their rights.

The lowest voter participation was recorded in Gorontalo city, at 80.13 percent.

During the election campaign, Gorontalo KPUD tried to win over various social groups, including first-time voters, women, religious leaders, people with disabilities and other marginalized groups, by distributing educational modules to each group. The style of language in the modules, presented as books, was adjusted to each group.

The module for first-time voters, for instance, used simple language and included caricatures to help readers understand the election process and their voting rights. '€œThe potential [number] of first-time voters in Gorontalo province is relatively big; around 4,727 people,'€ said Tuli.

Election campaigns were also extended to remote villages by using local dialects, so the message of the importance of the elections could be conveyed, including at nursing homes and penitentiaries.

The KPUD was also assisted by a number of volunteer journalists who made and distributed a voting simulation video. The 18-minute video, titled '€œVideografi Pemungutan dan Penghitungan Suara'€ (Videography on Voting and Vote Counting), which also involved people with disabilities, was first uploaded to media-sharing website YouTube on March 6.

According to Gorontalo Elections Monitoring Agency (Bawaslu) head Hasyim Wantu, the political awareness of local residents in the regency is relatively good. However, he said that this was also related to vote-buying allegedly undertaken by some legislative candidates.

'€œThe increase in election participation in Gorontalo was also attributed to the lure of voters through money politics by a number of legislative candidates, even though this is difficult to trace,'€ Hasyim said.

He said Bawaslu received 10 reports of incidents of vote-buying by a number of candidates from various political parties, but only two had been examined.

'€œThe election regulations are too weak and we could not implicate those who resorted to money politics because, when they distributed the money, they deployed people who were not part of their campaign teams,'€ said Hasyim.

Meanwhile, West Kalimantan KPUD head Umi Rifdiawati said ballot participation in the province stood at 76.64 percent, which was higher than that during the gubernatorial election (70.33 percent).

The total number of eligible voters in West Kalimantan for the recent legislative election was 3,479,368 people. Together with Gorontalo KPUD, West Kalimantan KPUD was declared a role model for professionalism as it was able to convey reports accurately and efficiently.

Overall, polling in 14 regencies and mayoralties across West Kalimantan took place without obstacles, apart from the re-votes required in a number of polling stations in Sintang and Sanggau regencies.