Bakesbangpol Jakarta head Darwis Muhammad Aji said a shortage of ballots had been one of the key problems affecting Jakarta’s gubernatorial election on Feb.15. Many residents not yet registered on the DPT swarmed polling stations to vote by bringing their identification cards (e-KTP), recommendation letters from the Civil Registry and Demography Agency (Disdukcapil) or family cards only in the last minutes before voting ended at 1 p.m.

As a result, many of them could not cast their votes, because many polling stations did not have enough ballots to accommodate the additional voters.

(Read also: Jakarta voter list to be increased ahead of second round)

Darwis said Jakarta residents should be more aware of the need to register their participation in the election to ensure their names were on DPTs.“Don’t go to polling stations to cast vote only in minutes before they close by only bringing your e-KTP and family card. In that case, it is unlikely election committees can fully facilitate them,” he said, as quoted by kompas.com at City Hall on Thursday.

Darwis said the number of additional ballots for unregistered voters was very limited, amounting to only 2.5 percent of the total number of voters registered on the DPT of a polling station.

In the first round of voting on Wednesday, he said, there had been a jump in unregistered voters who wanted to use the additional ballots. (ebf)

Popular

The fragile promise of pluralism, religious freedom in Southeast Asia

Coffee, gold push up inflation to 1.95 percent in April

Furniture exporters decry new quarantine rule