The release date for the final voters list for the 2014 legislative elections has been revised after meetings between government institutions and the elections board on Wednesday. The final list will now be released 14 days prior to polling day on April 9.
The General Elections Commission (KPU) has pushed the deadline back after announcing in November that the list would be released on Dec. 4.
“The meeting yesterday was not to finalize the voter roll but [to synchronize the] revisions. Some 54,000 identification numbers are still missing according to assessments by the KPU and Home Affairs Ministry data,” House Commission II legislator Khatibul Umam Wiranu said in Jakarta on Thursday.
The lawmaker said Wednesday’s meeting was attended by the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), legislators from House Commission II, Home Affairs Ministry representatives and political parties.
Khatibul emphasized that the decision to set the final voter roll release deadline to two weeks before the elections complied with the 2012 law on legislative elections.
“Should anyone find themselves unregistered on the final voter list, an additional regulation could be implemented by which voters may use their identity cards or family cards [to register],” Khatibul said.
The lawmaker added that the meeting on Wednesday agreed on the elimination of some 450,000 names from the list, including those who have passed away, moved from their voting zone or who have become members of the National Police or the military.
According to Khatibul, as of Wednesday, the current total number of eligible voters in the revised list stood at 186,172,408. Of those, 54,692 voters remain undocumented, leaving much for the Ministry of Home Affairs to do.
“If the facts show that the 54,692 voters do not fulfill the citizenship requirements, then Bawaslu will request to have their identification numbers eliminated from the final list,” Bawaslu chairman Muhammad said.
Additionally, the Home Affairs Ministry on Wednesday also released new identification numbers for some 3.3 million voters who in an earlier version of the list were discovered to be undocumented.
Directorate general of the Citizenship and Civil Records board (Dukcapil) Irman said he had instructed the regional Dukcapil offices to help local KPU branches in verifying the identities and data of voters.
The KPU confirmed it has prepared statement letters from its regional branches to confirm the existence of the 3.3 million identified voters in their respective areas.
“The district and city KPU offices have requested for the identification numbers to be sent to the regional Dukcapil office, but the regional Dukcapil office will have to coordinate with the central Dukcapil office to have the data processed,” central KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik said .
The final voter roll has been subject to much criticism after organizations and various political parties claimed that the list had been based on flawed data.
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono also in November moved to summon ministers and other high-ranking officials to discuss the issues surrounding voter list data, and called for officials from the KPU and the Home Affairs Ministry to properly synchronize so as to ensure that no eligible voter would be deprived of their right to vote.
This is the second time this year voter lists have caused controversy.
The chairwoman of the Jakarta KPU was censured for committing an “ethical violation” after refusing to revise a flawed voter list for the gubernatorial elections in July.
There are widespread concerns that unrevised electoral lists — which include thousands of ineligible or fictitious voters —would leave the election system open to abuse.
Thirty-four percent of the public are concerned about vote-buying and ballot fraud according to a study conducted by the People’s Voter Education Network published this month.
Author/Autor:Robertus Wardi
Source7Fuente: http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/news/legislative-election-voter-list-delayed-until-march/
