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Chinese citizen mistakenly registered for election after input error
Only Indonesian citizens can vote in elections.
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A General Elections Commission (KPU) official displays five different ballots at the KPU building in Central Jakarta on Monday. Voters could have up to five ballots to vote for the president and vice president, lawmakers and councilors at the provincial, city and regency level in the 2019 elections, which will be held simultaneously on April 17. (The Jakarta Post/Dhoni Setiawan)
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47-year old man in Cianjur, West Java, was confused when his identity card number did not appear on the final voter list (DPT).
Instead, Cianjur resident Bahar found his name under a different identity card number (NIK) that was later revealed as the NIK of a Chinese citizen Guohui Chen, who holds a permanent resident card.
The West Java Population and Civil Registration Agency Head Heri Suherman said the error was caused by a negligent official who mistakenly input the data for the KPU.
“A foreign citizen could have an identity card, called the permanent resident card, similar to that of an Indonesian citizen,” Heri said on Tuesday.
Currently, only the nationality section differs between a foreign permanent resident card and an Indonesian citizen’s identity card. However, both cards have 16-digit number in a similar physical form.
The West Java General Elections Commission (KPU) head Rifqi Ali Mubarok confirmed that the DPT did not end up listing a foreign voter, only a different number registered under Bahar’s name.
“The only correction needed is to change Bahar’s identity card number so that it matches his identity card,” Rifqi said.
Meanwhile, West Java Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) member Zaki Hilmi said his team would check the source of the error.
“So far, we have only found one [mistake]. We are still checking the source of the data input error,” Zaki said.
According to the 2017 law on elections, only Indonesian citizens can vote in elections. (mai)
