n index released by the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) reveals seven provinces will be most prone to conflict during the simultaneous regional elections, which are scheduled for Feb. 15.
The 2017 Elections Vulnerability Index predicts West Papua will be the electorate area most prone to conflict, with an index level of 3.381. Aceh ranks second with 3.327, followed by Banten (3.147), West Sulawesi (2.367), Jakarta (2.297), Bangka Belitung (2.293) and Gorontalo (2.015).
“The vulnerability rank is calculated by comparing the total number of polling stations prone to conflict in each province with the total number of polling stations in that area,” Bawaslu’s monitoring division coordinator Daniel Zuchron said on Monday.
He further explained that West Papua had 2,857 polling stations, 2,048 of which were prone to money politics.
“Money politics in West Papua may occur either by giving money to voters or bribing election organizers. This can happen because West Papua is a rural area and it is underdeveloped,” Daniel said.
Central Java, Papua and South East Sulawesi were also electoral areas prone to conflicts, the index found.
“We have warned the authorities about these findings because they are important. We have asked the central and regional administrations to pay attention to this data," Daniel said.
The vulnerability index, with a scale of 0 to 5, is based on three main dimensions, namely election implementation, contestation and participation.
Five aspects also determined the index score. They included voter data validity, complete logistics distribution, public official interventions during the election process, money politics and the fulfillment of election procedures. (ebf)
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