Adisti Sukma Sawitri, Jakarta – Despite few residents turning up, the first day of extended voter registration caused headaches and mixed responses at the offices of the Jakarta Elections Commission (KPU Jakarta).
Several residents turned up with folders containing the names of dozens of citizens unable to turn up to the offices to register themselves, in spite of a commission notice calling on eligible voters to turn up in person.
A group of men from Tanah Merah turned up to the commission's North Jakarta office with hundreds of applications from unregistered residents, not only from the area, but also from Central and West Jakarta.
The group's coordinator Soegijanto argued that the area – consisting of three subdistricts: South Rawa Badak, South Tugu and Kelapa Gading Barat – contained a lot of residents with Jakarta ID cards issued by other subdistricts.
He said the area was the site of a land dispute between national oil company Pertamina and local residents. Most of the 3,000 residents in the area were recent arrivals, he added.
"Most of our residents cannot attain IDs stating they are residents of the areas since it is disputed land. But all of us voted in the 2004 presidential elections," Soegijanto said.
After a long argument, the commission's officials finally accepted the applications of those holding IDs with addresses in the three sub-districts and returned the rest of the applications.
The head of the South Jakarta office, Mabrur, said registrations were only accepted for absentee voters if those applying to the office were relatives of the applicants. "We want to avoid the efforts of several groups to mobilize people from outside Jakarta to vote in the election," he said.
Meanwhile, at the commission's Central Jakarta office, officials were far less strict about absentee applicants. Sarifudin, the head of a neighborhood unit in Kalibata Pulo subdistrict, was able to register 10 residents who were unable to come to the office.
"I've had to bring all of these applications because I wasn't home on the last registration day last week when people came in to hand in their documents," he said.
Separately, the city police said they had questioned four people over alleged interference with voter registration in Karet Tengsin, Central Jakarta. The head of the Tanah Abang police subprecinct, Comr. Jhoni Iskandar, said Wednesday the four were being questioned as witnesses.
"We will continue investigating but we will coordinate closely with the Jakarta election watchdog (Panwasda) to make the final decision on whether this case is purely a crime or a violation of electoral procedures," he said.
On Tuesday, a group of people believed to be supporters of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) allegedly attempted to steal a document from a voter registration officer after he refused to let them copy it.
Panwasda head Suhartono said his office had been informed that as of Wednesday there had been at least five similar cases of alleged interference with voter registration, including in Karet Tengsin and Bungur in Central Jakarta, and Kayu Putih in East Jakarta.
Suhartono said his office would investigate the cases and had requested reports on them. "We will investigate further to find out whether they are administrative violations, electoral crimes or regular crimes," he said. He said the poll watchdog had not yet received official reports from the police about the cases.