Overcome Problems Immediately
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Officers move ballot boxes that have just arrived at the Dukuh Setro subdistrict office, Tambaksari district, Surabaya, Monday (15/4/2019). As of Monday, the ballots at the district election committee (PPK) were distributed to the subdistrict level.
The government and election organizers are urged to resolve problems immediately before voting day. Everyone is responsible for maintaining peace during the 2019 elections.
JAKARTA, KOMPAS — Election organizers are striving to resolve a number of problems ahead of voting day on April 17, 2019. Meanwhile, the government is responsible for ensuring security during the election so that the people will be able to vote in safety.
Amid these efforts, the people are urged to remain calm, especially considering the potential for widely circulated fake news and disinformation on the voting method and the electoral contest.
Coordinating Political, Legal and Security Affairs Minister Wiranto said in Jakarta on Monday (4/15/2019) that the Indonesian Military (TNI) and the National Police were prepared to anticipate a variety of potential security disruptions on election day. This was to protect the people against any attempts at coercion from the moment they leave their homes to head to the polling stations (TPS) and until they leave the TPS.
Meanwhile, the General Elections Commission (KPU) was continuing with its efforts to resolve various technical and logistical issues for the election. Wiranto reaffirmed that the KPU had distributed additional ballot papers to several regions that had reported shortages.
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Officers arrange boxes containing election materials that have just arrived at the Dukuh Setro subdistrict office, Tambaksari district, Surabaya, Monday (15/4/2019). As of Monday ,the ballots at the district election committee (PPK) were distributed to the subdistrict level.
Overseas polls
The KPU is also tackling problems with the overseas polls, which were held ahead of voting day in the country, as well as with the final voters list (DPT).
Hundreds of Indonesians in Sydney, Australia, were unable to vote on April 13, when a local polling station closed at 6 p.m. The incident sparked a protest, which went viral on social media. As quoted by the Australian Broadcasting Corp., Heranudin, the head of the Sydney overseas polling committee (PPLN), said that the polling station had closed because its location permit had expired and for security reasons.
Meanwhile, sacks of allegedly pre-marked ballot papers were discovered last Thursday in a warehouse in Selangor, Malaysia. The KPU and the Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) have not yet been permitted access to the warehouse to check the ballot papers, as the Royal Malaysia Police (RMP) was still investigating the case.
The KPU’s Hasyim Asy’ari said that the incidents in Malaysia and Australia were casuistic and were not representative of the overseas polls being held in 130 locations around the world. “We are handling the problems. However, the overseas polls in other locations have run smoothly with high enthusiasm,” said Hasyim. Regarding the cases in Sydney and Kuala Lumpur, the KPU was awaiting the Bawaslu’s recommendations.
Regarding the voter database, the KPU had completed its investigation on the 17.5 million allegedly problematic voters as reported by the Prabowo Subianto-Sandiaga Uno national campaign team. KPU official Viryan Azis said on April 14 that the KPU had explained the results of its investigation to the two presidential campaign teams.
The reported allegations involved duplicate, invalid or fabricated data, an unusual age limit for voters, and a high number of voters with the same birthdays. The KPU coordinated with population and civil registration agencies to verify the data using random sampling and held focused group discussions with demography experts in investigating the allegations. The KPU corrected the data of 944,164 voters and eliminated data on 470,331 voters to conclude the case.
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Officers arrange and take inventory of election materials have been moved from a flooded warehouse at GOR PGRI, Ciseeng district, Bogor regency, West Java, Monday (15/4/2019). Water and mud inundated the warehouse after the walls of the building collasped due to heavy rains in the area on Sunday (14/4/2019) evening. Officers asked regional General Elections Commission (KPU) offices to replace the damaged ballot boxes and other materials.
Stay calm
The central boards of the nation’s two largest Muslim organizations, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) and Muhammadiyah, have called upon the public ahead of voting day to ensure a successful election and to maintain peace, calm and safety.
NU chair Said Aqil Siroj said that voters should use their rationale and conscience in voting for their president, vice president and representatives. Voters needed to create a peaceful political climate and refrain from provoking one another to foster rationale and conscience.
Muhammadiyah chair Haedar Nashir expressed his hope that everyone would use the calm period to strengthen their bond with fellow citizens. All elements of the nation must avoid disrupting the peace and harming the election. Social media and mass media must prevent the spread of fake news, hate and other things that could heighten political tension.
Logistics
Ninety percent of the election materials have arrived at district offices in Central Kalimantan. The Central Kalimantan KPU said it was optimistic that all materials would arrive on time at the polling stations.
Local KPUs in Papua could not finish distributing election materials to districts in the province’s highland regions, due to the challenging geography and unpredictable weather.
Papua Bawaslu official Jamaluddin said that the incomplete distribution of materials had raised concerns that the polls could be delayed in several Papuan regencies.
In other regions like Maluku and East Nusa Tenggara, replacements for damaged ballot papers were distributed immediately to ensure that they would arrive at polling stations the day before the election.
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Two days ahead of the 2019 simultaneous elections, people begin setting up polling stations (TPS), such as those found in Kampoeng Pemilu Nusantara, Depok Jaya village, Pancoran Mas district, Depok city, West Java, Monday (15/4/2019). In Kampoeng Pemilu Nusantara, residents in RW 03 neighborhood community built as many as eight polling stations on a sports field. The construction of polling stations started on Sunday (14/4/2019). Ballots and other materials for the 2019 elections were scheduled to arrive at the polling stations on Tuesday (16/4/2019).
KPU official Ilham Saputra said the commission would accelerate the distribution of materials to ensure a smooth election. The KPU records show that 1.5 percent of all ballot papers were damaged, which had been sorted and replaced with new ones. (SAN/REK/FLO/FRN/DNE/IDO/NTA/MTK/YSA)
