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RI working towards e-voting

Indonesia is working to ease the problems surrounding e-voting in the hope of implementing the new system in the 2014 general elections

The Jakarta Post
Jakarta
Thu, May 20, 2010

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RI working towards e-voting

Indonesia is working to ease the problems surrounding e-voting in the hope of implementing the new system in the 2014 general elections.

Jembrana regency in Bali, which implemented e-voting last year,  saw smooth elections of 54 hamlet heads in 31 villages, making it the first regency ready to have e-voting for its regional head elections.

The head of the Agency for the Assessment and Application of Technology (BPPT), Marzan Aziz Iskandar, said that bring in successful e-voting, a region needs the full introduction of electronic identity cards (e-KTP).

“A region is ready once all the voters already hold an e-KTP,” Marzan said on Wednesday during a National Dialogue on E-voting for the 2014 general elections.

The procurement of e-KTP will be managed by the Home Affairs Ministry, to be completed by 2012.

“Once the e-KTP program is ready by 2012, the infrastructure for e-voting would be in place,” Marzan said. “We also need to arrange additional infrastructure, such as scanners and the system that converts temporary and permanent voter lists into the e-voting system,” he added.

The dialogue also heard that there were problems on how to do this.

One of them was the 2004 law on regional administration. The Constitutional Court, however, has issued a ruling in March this year, ordering the government to revise the 2004 law on regional administrations, which would allow e-voting to elect regents, mayors and governors. The petitioners for the revision were Jembrana Regent I Gede Winasa along with 20 hamlet heads who have been elected through e-voting.

Marzan also questioned the preparedness of the voters, technology and the elections commission.

“We have to anticipate such problems early on,” he said.

However, Marzan said the e-voting system should remain an option for the 2014 general elections.

“We will talk about this more  whether the e-voting will be widely implemented or only for some of the regions,” he said. “Many alternatives are open. Maybe we will start e-counting first rather than e-voting,” he added.

In terms of regulation, Jimly Asshiddiqie the former Constitutional Court chairman said since the court has approved e-voting, the system could be implemented now.

He said the General Election Commission (KPU) was responsible  for dealing with technical issues.

“However, there are many things we have to consider, such how to settle voting disputes [in e-voting],” he said. “I hope that the details of e-voting will be included in the Election Law,” he added.

He said that introducing e-voting should be staggered.  “We cannot do it all at once,” he said. “We can start e-voting at the level of city, regency or province in 2014,” he added.

A politician from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Ganjar Pranowo, expressed  pessimism on e-voting.

He said the national legislative elections were too complex for  this.

“Probably, it can be implemented for regional elections and the presidential election,” he added.   

“I just want people to be realistic. For me e-voting is a fashion, it is like I am wearing batik today and you are wearing your shirt,” he said.  

Proponents of the e-voting system have said the system would save money compared to the present system and expedite vote counting. It is also claimed the use of computerized ID cards for voters would reduce incidents of double voting, which marred last year’s legislative elections. (map)

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