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Voters find hiccups at start of balloting
Voters were in disarray over unclear timetables and outdated registries as confusion marked the start of overseas balloting for Indonesia’s first ever simultaneous legislative and presidential elections
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span>Voters were in disarray over unclear timetables and outdated registries as confusion marked the start of overseas balloting for Indonesia’s first ever simultaneous legislative and presidential elections.
Twenty-eight-year-old Wisnu Agung Pradana, an Indonesian studying at the University of Georgia in the United States, received a set of ballots in the mail on Sunday evening, more than two weeks before in-country voting takes place on April 17.
He said there was no obvious timetable for the designated period for voting overseas, which left him and his friends in the dark about when they should send ballots to their local overseas election committees.
“I initially did not know that I had been mailed the ballots. Had I not checked my mailbox, I would not have known. Some of my friends have not received a notification on when they will receive [their ballots],” Wisnu told The Jakarta Post on Monday.
As a result, Wisnu and his friends have had to be proactive in confirming information with their nearest election committee at the Indonesian Consulate General in Houston, Texas.
Some overseas voters who received their ballots in the mail posted photos of them on social media, likely not knowing that the practice is prohibited by the General Elections Commission (KPU).
Gabriela Kaloka, 27, an Indonesian voter currently studying in Sweden, complained about the need to be proactive in seeking information about overseas voting. In her case, Gabriela found that the voter registry data that her local election committee possessed seemed to not match with the data of Indonesians living abroad.
“I have two friends who are not active in the Indonesian [students] association in Lund, which has been our source of information for the election. They have, however, been given permission to vote at the Stockholm polling station,” the media and communications student said.
Gabriela received her ballots on March 10.
In response to such complaints, Wajid Fauzi, the head of the working group responsible for overseas elections, said the committees were trying their best to hold responsible and well-managed elections. He instructed eligible voters who come across problems to contact their committee via ppln.kemlu.go.id.
“The website features contact numbers for election committees in every country, so please do tell them about your difficulties so that we can try to help resolve them,” the diplomat told the Post on Monday.
According to Wajid, election committees have been gradually distributing ballots to eligible voters through post offices since March 8.
“With regard to post-based voting, we are currently still facing difficulties in supervising the process,” said Fritz Edward Siregar, a commissioner at the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu).
Article 168 of KPU Regulation No. 3/2019 stipulates that ballots for overseas voters should be sent 30 days before the election.
The time period for direct voting at 783 polling stations and submissions to 2,345 post boxes across 130 global offices is from April 8 to 14.
As of Monday, the KPU recorded about 2.06 million eligible overseas voters, consisting of 1.16 million women and 902,727 men — lower than the total from the 2014 election (2.09 million).
Migrant CARE, which plays a supervisory role in the overseas elections, has expressed its concern that the voting process abroad continues to be carried out manually using methods that do not guarantee “direct, general, free, confidential, honest and fair” elections.
