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Central Java's Pati election sees voters choose blank box
The vote-counting process in the regency election in Pati, Central Java, on Wednesday found voters casting votes for a blank box on the ballot paper, which listed only one candidate pair, incumbent Haryanto and running mate Saiful Arifin.
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Eligible voters in Mintobasuki village, Gabus district, Pati regency, Central Java, have to use boats to reach a polling station due to widespread flooding in the area on Feb. 15. (JP/Suherdjoko)
T
he vote-counting process in the regency election in Pati, Central Java, on Wednesday found voters casting votes for a blank box on the ballot paper, which listed only one candidate pair, incumbent Haryanto and running mate Saiful Arifin.
The vote count at a polling station in Tlogoayu subdistrict, Gabus district, for example, found Haryanto-Saiful won 125 votes while the blank box got 37. A ruling by the Constitutional Court allowed a blank box to be printed on ballot papers with sole candidate pairs.
Haryanto-Saiful were nominated jointly by eight political parties, namely the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), National Awakening Party (PKB), Democratic Party, Golkar Party, People’s Conscience (Hanura) Party, Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and United Development Party (PPP).
Only Nasdem did not nominate a candidate pair in the Pati election.
Sutiyo, the chairman of the Pati Election Democracy Guard Alliance, encouraged high voter turnout in Pati saying that he and his colleagues had succeeded in providing voters with information regarding their rights in a democracy.
“Voters can cast their votes for the blank box if they do not want to vote for the sole candidate pair,” said Sutiyo.
His organization's volunteers found that in several polling stations the blank box won the tally. (evi)
