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EDITORIAL: Value your vote
With a 3 percent vote margin separating the two candidate pairs after the first round on Feb. 15, both Ahok-Djarot and Anies Baswedan-Sandiaga Uno will work day and night to make sure every voter turns up for the second and final round to help them win.
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the list of voters (DPT) in Pulau Panggang, Thousand Island , Jakarta, Saturday February 4, 2017.17.415 people of the Thousand Island Regency are eligible to vote during the Regional election on,February 15, 2015. (JP/Seto Wardhana.)
T
he Jakarta political climate looks to heat up again as two candidate pairs, which the provincial poll body declared on Saturday as eligible to contest in the April 19 gubernatorial election runoff, will campaign on Tuesday. For the sake of fairness, incumbent Governor Basuki “Ahok” Tjahaja Purnama and his running mate incumbent Deputy Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat will have to take mandatory leave during the campaign period slated for March 7 until April 15, the poll body said, referring to Regional Election Law No. 8/2015.
With a 3 percent vote margin separating the two candidate pairs after the first round on Feb. 15, both Ahok-Djarot and Anies Baswedan-Sandiaga Uno will work day and night to make sure every voter turns up for the second and final round to help them win.
Although the official voting results of the Feb. 15 election were not challenged by any of the candidate pairs, voter lists remain a concern. The Jakarta poll commission revealed that at least 237,000 voters did not make it onto voter lists in the first round election, but the commission has vowed to update the lists for the runoff.
Although voters who are not on the list should not lose their right to vote, they should heed the poll body’s call for them to register themselves with their respective subdistrict offices. As in the first round election, their absence from the voter lists could trigger confusion or arguments with poll workers.
There were cases of voters who were denied entry to polling stations because their names were not on the lists. Some of them could vote after filling out a form, which stated that they were local residents. Many others, however, eventually lost their right to vote because confused poll workers only allocated 30 minutes for unregistered voters to cast ballots.
The Jakarta Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta) repeatedly reminded voters to check their names through its website prior to the election and immediately go to their respective subdistrict office if they were not listed. How many voters complied with the request is unknown, but last minute complaints — which turned ugly at some polling stations — demonstrated unawareness on the voters’ part. They demanded their right to vote but ignored their responsibility to register.
It is inappropriate to accuse the polling body of deliberate removal of names from voter lists in favor of certain candidates as there is no way to know which candidate members of the polling body would vote for unless they publicly unveiled their choices. Furthermore, the polling body would be taking a huge risk if it deprived voters of constitutional rights.
