Jakarta – Learning from the voter list fiasco that marred the legislative elections, the government says it has taken necessary measures to prevent the problem from recurring in July's presidential election.

Home Minister Mardiyanto told a hearing of the House of Representatives' Commission II on domestic affairs the central government was encouraging provincial and regional governments to play a more active role in helping the General Elections Commission (KPU) update the list of eligible voters for the July 8 polls.

"Local government instruments must assist the KPU update the voter list and ensure the validity of the data. The bureaucracy must also intensively raise public awareness of the voter list updating process, which is now underway," he said.

The KPU will complete the process by May 10, but will open registration until May 17. The final voter list will be made public on May 31.

The government and KPU have called on the public to actively check their status on the list with their respective neighborhood unit chiefs.

Political parties and civil society groups claim approximately 40 million of the nation's 171 million eligible voters were prevented from voting in the April 9 legislative election because of to the KPU's failure to register them.

Somehow, many of the dead people, minors and police and military personnel, who are not eligible to vote, were on the list.

The commission and the government came under fire from parties and the public over the voter list.

Both the government and KPU blamed each other for the mess, but on Monday, Mardiyanto acknowledged a lack of coordination between the two institutions might have caused the problem.

"There was a lack of capable human resources when we converted the potential voter list (DP4) into the interim voter list (DPS). The lack of publicity of the interim voter list deterred people from confirming their presence on the list."

The voter list controversy has triggered civil society groups and political parties to file a lawsuit against the commission and the government for ignoring citizens' constitutional right to vote.

KPU chief Abdul Hafiz Anshary said it would be better to resolve the issue with a personal approach. "I believe we can resolve on the issue peacefully and we do not need to fight each other at the Constitutional Court," he said. (hdt)