KPU fails to release preliminary voter list

Adianto P. Simamora ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Sat, 08/09/2008 11:29 AM  |  Headlines

The national elections body said it had failed to release a preliminary list of eligible voters by the deadline on Friday because regional offices had not submitted updated data.

The delay drew criticism from poll monitors including the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), which accused the General Elections Commission (KPU) of concocting the excuse to hide its failure to prepare legitimate elections.

"It is true the KPU has no obligation to publish the preliminary list of voters. But if they had vision and good preparation, they could have made public a national list of voters on their website," Cetro executive director Hadar Gumay said.

"Any delay in preparations will affect the budget for electoral logistics including the procurement of ballot papers."

The KPU argued it could not release the voter list as scheduled because some regions, including East Java, had not submitted updated provisional data on eligible voters.

"We can't force them to do so. What we are doing now is making sure that each local election body (KPUD) releases a preliminary list of voters in its area before Aug. 14," KPU member Sri Nuryanti told The Jakarta Post.

She said her office was undergoing intensive talks with local election bodies about the lists of voters.

"We have a month to update the list of voters. I have received reports from many areas that the provisional lists of voters have been made public in several remote villages," Sri said.

But Hadar said most of the preliminary voter lists released in local areas Friday were probably not valid, as they might not have been updated from those used previously in regional elections.

Head of the East Java election body Wahyudi Purnomo said his office had released a preliminary list of voters based on the total number of eligible voters in the province's gubernatorial election.

"It is the most up-to-date data we have. We have not yet updated it as demanded by the KPU," he said.

About 29 million people were registered as eligible voters in last month's gubernatorial election in East Java.

The KPU plans to visit several areas across Jakarta to determine whether the preliminary lists of voters have been announced in subdistrict offices.

Sri said it was estimated there were 174 million people eligible to vote in the legislative and presidential elections.

The KPU is scheduled to close voter registrations on Aug. 27 and release the final list of eligible voters in October this year.

But the delay in releasing the provisional list of voters will not disrupt overall election preparations, another KPU official, Andi Nurpati, said.

"We are not required to release the preliminary list of voters. The KPU only needs to release the final list of voters," she said.

Fellow KPU official I Gusti Putu Artha said Thursday his office would release the voter list Friday even though it contained some invalid data from the government.

Copyright © 2008 The Jakarta Post - PT Bina Media Tenggara. All Rights Reserved.