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Regions prepare for potential natural disasters ahead of polling day
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A voter casts a ballot for the presidential and legislative elections at a flooded polling station in Jelambar, West Jakarta, on Feb. 14, 2024. (Antara/Wahyu Putro A)
Regional administrations and General Elections Commission (KPU) offices are preparing for the possibility that natural disasters may strike ahead of voting day for the regional elections on Wednesday, as some parts of the country experience increased flooding and landslides amid an intense rainy season.
Wednesday’s elections will be the first time Indonesians vote for their governors, mayors and regents simultaneously across 37 provinces, 415 regencies and 93 cities, more than at any other time in the nation’s history.
But concerns have surfaced over voting procedures in areas prone to natural disasters or those that have been affected by them in recent weeks, with floods and landslides hitting a number of parts of the country and causing dozens of fatalities.
As many as 572 polling stations in Jakarta are reportedly prone to inundation, the capital’s KPU office said this week. The office said it was coordinating with polling station administrators and the Jakarta Disaster Mitigation Agency (BPBD) to improve access to polling stations in the case of flooding.
“With the local disaster mitigation agency, we have prepared inflatable boats to help voters get to the polling booths,” KPU Jakarta voter information and education head Astri Megatari said on Tuesday, as quoted by tribunnews.com.
The KPU Jakarta branch has also outlined plans to move polling to different locations if flooding occurs.
“Schools can be an alternative spot for the polling booths’ relocation should there be a flood in the area,” KPU Jakarta commissioner Dody Wijaya said on Monday, Tribunnews reported.
