TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Far from home, Indian diaspora in Indonesia laments wasted votes
India and Indonesia have different regulations regarding voting overseas.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Rare occasion: Indian community members pose with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (center) during his visit to Indonesia last year. (-/-)
I
ndia and Indonesia are hosting general elections this month, with more than 1 billion eligible voters between them headed to the polls – arguably some of the world’s largest fetes of democracy by two of the three largest democracies in the world.
In India, some 900 million eligible voters are beginning to descend upon the more than 1 million voting booths erected in all 20 states to exercise their civic rights in seven phases, beginning Wednesday and ending on May 19.
While both countries face the challenge of scale, Indonesia faces the additional challenge of complexity, as an estimated 192 million people will cast their votes to elect a presidential and vice presidential candidate, as well as members of the House of Representatives, the People’s Consultative Assembly and the Regional Legislative Councils, all in one sitting next Wednesday.
Vice President Jusuf Kalla has called it the “most complex” election in the world.
But while the Indonesian diaspora overseas is given the opportunity to vote in a number of different ways, Indian citizens residing in Indonesia are forced to go back to their hometown to be able to cast their ballot, as the Indian election system does not allow for overseas voting.
Satyabrata Mahapatra, 30, who works in an IT company based in Jakarta, said he thought he would be able to vote from Jakarta, as he heard the government was planning to allow online votes for Non-Resident Indians (NRI).
He then learned that the option was not available because India’s Election Commission requires voters to be present in their registered constituency in India on the day of polling.
