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Low voter turnout expected in Tebing Tinggi election
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All set -- General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioners Arief Budiman (right) and Hadar Nafis Gumay show examples of tactile ballots for blind voters in a press conference at the KPU office in Jakarta on Jan.4. (Antara/Reno Esnir)
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low voter turnout is expected in the mayoral election in Tebing Tinggi, North Sumatra, as few voters reportedly understand the voting mechanism in an election with a sole candidate.
Roni Ramadhan, a resident of Rambung subdistrict, Tebing Tinggi, said he had no idea of how to vote when only one ticket was running in the Feb. 15 election. His lack of knowledge was evident when he participated in a voting simulation held by the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Sunday.
“I really didn’t know how to do it. I then decided to perforate a blank box on the ballot paper,” Roni said on Tuesday. He hoped election organizers could promote the voting procedure of voting in a sole candidate election more intensively.
Only one ticket, Umar Zunaidi Hasibuan and Oki Doni Siregar, will participate in the Tebing Tinggi mayoral election. The incumbent candidate pair is backed by the Gerindra Party, the Hanura Party, the Golkar Party, the NasDem Party, the Democratic Party, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the United Development Party (PPP) and the National Awakening Party (PKB).
North Sumatra Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) head Syafrida R.Rasahan acknowledged that only a few Tebing Tinggi residents understood the voting procedure in a sole candidate election.
She said Sunday’s simulation was unsuccessful because it was held at only one polling station with very few participants.
Syafrida said simulations should have been organized in at least one polling station in each subdistrict. “I’m afraid that voter turnout in the upcoming Tebing Tinggi election will be low,” she said. (ebf)
