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Polls postponed in areas with logistical problems
Voting in several areas has been delayed as a result of problems caused by inclement weather and other difficulties
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Voting in several areas has been delayed as a result of problems caused by inclement weather and other difficulties.
General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioner Ilham Saputra said the commission was aware of the problems and the Elections Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu) in each region should submit voting postponement recommendations to the regional KPU, including a schedule of when polling could take place.
Among the areas with logistical problems are Jayapura in Papua, Nias Island in North Sumatra and Batam in Riau Islands.
“The central KPU will continue to work with Bawaslu on the problems. We will check where the mistakes were, and at which level,” Ilham said on Wednesday.
Ilham said Papua was one of the first regions to receive voting materials from the central KPU. “We will follow up all the reports related to logistical issues in some regions,” he said.
In Jayapura, voting has been postponed until Thursday. Election materials such as ballots and ballot boxes have been sent to the KPU Jayapura but have yet to be distributed to polling stations.
“Besides Abepura district, voting has been delayed in three subdistricts in South Jayapura district,” KPU Papua head Theodorus Kossay said on Wednesday.
Voters had lined up at polling stations from 7 a.m. local time, but by the afternoon voting had still not started.
The election committee in Nias Island also announced a postponement in voting in four districts, namely Toma, Somambawa, Siduaori and Mazino because of the late arrival of ballot boxes from the district polling committee.
“Ballot boxes have not yet arrived in Toma, Somambawa, Siduaori or Mazino. Therefore, we’ve decided to postpone the voting,” KPU North Sumatra official Benget Manahan Silitonga told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Benget added that the new voting schedule had not been decided, but the regional KPU only had 10 days to arrange it.
KPU South Nias head Edward Duha said the delay was caused by shortages and rain that hit South Nias the day before voting day. “We admit that from April 10 to election eve, we had too many activities, and the officials were exhausted. Besides that, heavy rain fell on the area for four hours, so we kept the ballot boxes in our warehouse because we did not want to ruin them,” Edward said.
In Banggai, Central Sulawesi, which was hit by an earthquake last year, many voters in polling stations in Sinorang subdistrict left without voting because they could not get ballots.
KPU Banggai, however, has yet to announce a voting postponement.
Banggai Regent Herwin Yatim said he was disappointed in the district KPU’s performance because seven of the 23 districts in the area had not received election materials until Wednesday morning. “The delay was because of KPU Banggai’s poor performance,” Herwin said.
He said the local administration had offered the assistance of the TNI and police to distribute the materials, but the KPU rejected this.
Herwin appealed the public to remain calm as the administration guaranteed their right to vote.
KPU Batam in Riau Islands said it would recommend re-voting in hundreds of polling stations because of ballot distribution delays in five districts, namely Bengkong, Batu Ampar, Nongsa, Batam Kota and Lubuk Baja.
The city’s elections supervisory agency head Boshar Hasibuan told the Post that the average voting process started at 11 a.m. “This time was quite chaotic, KPU Batam commissioners were unprofessional. They only distributed ballots and ballot boxes yesterday, this violates the election stages,” Boshar said, adding that the materials should have arrived in the districts on April 13.
According to Boshar, to accommodate many voters who could not cast their votes, they would hold a plenary meeting involving the KPU in Riau and Batam, as well as Bawaslu.
KPU Batam head Syahrul Huda said the distribution delay was caused by mistakes in the loading process.
“The loading process was not optimal and affected the delivery process. We tried our best. We didn’t know it would end up like this,” Syahrul said.
Saugi Sahab, a voter at a polling station in Sekupang subdistrict, expressed his disappointment. He said he had arrived at 7:30 a.m. but voting did not start until 10 a.m.
“Many people were waiting and finally left because of the uncertainty,” Saugi said.
