T

he House of Representatives and the General Elections Commission (KPU) finally wrapped up on Thursday talks on the 2019 election mechanisms, after agreeing on the last contentious article in the election regulations (PKPU) regarding provisional ballots.

“Thank God, everything has been completed,” KPU chairman Arief Budiman told reporters after the meeting with House Commission II on Thursday.

Commission II, which oversees home affairs, and the KPU have discussed the PKPU, which regulates, among other things, the requirements for voting in the legislative and presidential elections, the maximum number of voters in each polling station, and the order in which the votes will be counted, since August but only agreed on all of the PKPU’s articles on Thursday.

The final article that had caused prolonged debate between lawmakers and the election organizers was regarding whether voters who cast their vote outside the polling station where they are registered would be able to vote in the legislative elections.

The 2019 elections will be Indonesia’s first ever simultaneous legislative and presidential elections, voters will choose their House of Representatives, regional representatives council (DPD) and regional legislative council (DPRD) members concurrently with the presidential and vice-presidential candidates.

Voters who vote at the polling station where they are registered according to the address on their e-ID card will thus receive five ballot papers: one for the presidential and vice-presidential candidates, one for the House, one for the DPD, one for the provincial-level DPRD and one for the regency or municipal-level DPRD.

But, according to the PKPU, voters who vote at a different polling station outside of the electoral district where they are registered will only be able to vote for the presidential candidates. Commission II lawmakers had previously objected to this, saying it deprived citizens of the right to cast a vote in the legislative elections.

Commission II deputy chairman Herman Khaeron had suggested that the voters should be given ballots for the House and the DPD regardless of where they were registered because those institutions had a “national scope”.

“If [the legislative candidates] work is of a national scope, they should be able to be voted for anywhere, and voters should be able to vote for them anywhere,” Herman said last month. “That is what we suggested be included in the PKPU so that [citizens] do not lose their right to vote.”

The KPU, however, insisted that this was not possible as the 2017 General Elections Law stipulated that only voters registered in a particular electoral district would be allowed to vote for the legislators in that district.

“If a voter casts their vote outside their regency or municipal DPRD election district, than they will not get that ballot, and the same for the provincial DPRD, DPD and House ballots,” Arief said. “Because the point of the election is to vote for representation according to each electoral district. Only the ballots for the presidential elections will be available for all voters everywhere.”

All the political party factions within Commission II eventually decided to leave the matter to the KPU’s judgement, but urged the KPU to try its best to preserve citizens’ voting rights as much as possible.

“In principle we’ll leave it to the KPU, but we want to ensure that a citizen’s good intention to vote is not wasted by rules that are too rigid,” National Mandate Party lawmaker Yandri Susanto said at the meeting.

He also called on the KPU to ensure that polling station officials were clear on what was allowed, to avoid disputes between voters and officials on election day.

The KPU said it would start conducting training sessions for lower-level officials as soon as possible.