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Cheating, vote-buying feared ahead of polls
Eligible to vote: A woman displays an invitation-to-vote letter from the local poll administrators in Medan, North Sumatra, on Sunday
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Eligible to vote: A woman displays an invitation-to-vote letter from the local poll administrators in Medan, North Sumatra, on Sunday. Almost 2 million voters will cast their ballots in Wednesdayâs mayoral election.(JP/Apriadi Gunawan) (JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
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span class="caption">Eligible to vote: A woman displays an invitation-to-vote letter from the local poll administrators in Medan, North Sumatra, on Sunday. Almost 2 million voters will cast their ballots in Wednesday's mayoral election.(JP/Apriadi Gunawan)
As election day nears, candidate pairs are worrying about the possibility of cheating and vote-buying by their rivals, while the names of many who are deceased remain on voter lists.
In Surakarta, Central Java, the camps of both candidate pairs have begun to deploy thousands of their respective supporters in anticipation of vote-buying and cheating.
Chairman of the FX Hadi Rudyatmo ' Achmad Purnomo camp, Putut Gunawan, said his side had prepared 5,000 volunteers to conduct night patrols prior to the opening of voting booths on Wednesday morning.
'We predict aggressive vote-buying during the so-called dawn raid,' Putut said.
Rudyatmo replaced President Joko 'Jokowi' Widodo as mayor of Surakarta after the latter was elected Jakarta governor in 2012. Rudy, as he is fondly called, and his running mate were nominated by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
Separately, the camp of Rudy's rival candidate pair, Anung Indro Susanto and Muhammad Fajri, plans to deploy 10,000 campaign team members to polling stations in the city in anticipation of cheating ahead, during and after votes are cast.
The pair was nominated by a coalition of six parties: the Golkar Party, the Gerindra Party, the United Development Party (PPP), the Democratic Party, the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the National Mandate Party (PAN) .
Meanwhile, issues emerged in Sabu Raijua regency, East Nusa Tenggara, as 24,928 voters who were previously registered found that they had been scrapped from the voter list, leaving only 52,917 eligible voters from previously 77,845.
Sabu Raijua General Elections Commission (KPUD) chairman Yudi Tagi Huma said the names had been taken off the voter list because during field verification it was found that many of the names were listed multiple times.
'There were also names of those who are deceased on the list, or names of people who have moved from Sabu Raijua,' Yudi said on Sunday.
While candidate pairs hope for fair voting conditions, election bodies in the regions are struggling to attract voters.
In Medan, North Sumatra, the KPUD is preparing to set up mobile polling stations in a number of spots to encourage people to cast their votes in the mayoral election slated for Wednesday.
In Bone Bolango, Gorontalo, the local election organizer distributed 1,433 ballots to the remote district of Pinogu on foot.
'We could have used a motorcycle taxi, but the route is steep and is prone to landslides during the rainy season,' Bone Bolango KPUD chairman Darwis Hassan said while dispatching logistics couriers to Pinogu on Sunday morning.
In West Kalimantan, seven out of the province's 14 regencies, namely Sambas, Bengkayang, Kapuas Hulu, Ketapang, Sekadau, Sintang and Melawi regencies, will hold elections on Wednesday.
Syamsul Huda M. Suhari in Gorontalo and Severianus Endi in Pontianak contributed to this article.
