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KPU ensures safe, high turnout rate for regional elections despite challenges
Today, around 100 million registered voters – around 40 percent of the entire population of 260 million – will elect a total of nine governors, 224 regents and 37 mayors.
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Workers from the Depok General Elections Commission (KPU) stack ballot boxes at a warehouse in Cimanggis district, Depok, West Java, on Nov. 25. The Depok KPU has started distributing supplies throughout the city in preparation for the 2020 regional elections on Dec 9. (JP/P.J. Leo)
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ore than 100 million voters will cast their ballots in the 2020 simultaneous regional elections on Wednesday, including in areas that have seen the highest spike in COVID-19 cases in recent weeks.
However, the General Election Commission (KPU) was confident that voters would be adequately protected from transmission as they vote, as all the equipment needed for maintaining strict health protocols had arrived at the polling stations by Monday.
“As of 1 p.m. on Tuesday, progress in the distribution of health protocol equipment to voting stations has almost reached 100 percent. All of it should arrive today,” KPU commissioner Pramono Ubaid Tanthowi said on Tuesday.
“We hope the elections will be safe for voters and KPPS [polling station working committee] members alike.”
The 2020 regional elections might pale in comparison to the contest of two years prior, when some 73 percent of the total 152 million registered voters cast their ballots.
This year, around 100 million registered voters – around 40 percent of the entire population of 260 million – will elect nine governors, 224 regents and 37 mayors.
But this year’s polls will for the first time ever be held during a pandemic, which has prompted the election body to issue a string of health regulations for candidates, voters and election organizers at all stages of the elections.
