Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta – The door has officially been shut on voters not registered for August's gubernatorial election, with hundreds left off the rolls.
The decision was made by the official Election Monitoring Body (Panwasda) and the Jakarta Elections Commission on Friday in response to the growing demand from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) to extend the registration period.
"We have given enough time for residents to check their names. it is impossible to re-extend the registration period," Panwasda chairman Suhartono told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
He said that the commission had extended the registration period to June 19 from June 16 following Panwasda's findings that two neighborhoods in Utan Kayu, East Jakarta, consisting of more than 400 eligible voters, were not yet registered.
"In the case of the PKS, we never received formal complaints from the party. That's why we can't ask the commission for another extension of the registration period," he said.
He urged the PKS to file a complaint with Panwasda. "If they have strong evidences showing that certain groups have intentionally dropped the voting rights of residents, they could take legal action," he said.
Under the 2004 Election Law, preventing eligible voters from registering carries a two-month jail sentence or a Rp 2 million fine.
Hundreds of PKS members and supporters staged rallies at City Hall and the commission office last week to demand more time for the registration.
An executive from the party's Jakarta chapter, Roid Syaugie, said that the demand was made since many of the party's supporters had not been included on the voter list.
He said that a PKS survey showed 33 percent of its supporters across 145 neighborhoods were not listed on the electoral roll. "Out of the 23,000 members of the PKS, 7,000 of them are not registered. It is a significant figure," he said.
Speculation has been rife in the area, which is known to be a stronghold of the party, that the mistake was intentional and was made to decrease the number of people voting for Adang Daradjatun and Dani Anwar.
In its second rally on Friday, the PKS also quoted a survey conducted by the Institute of Research and Information on Social and Economic Affairs which found that around 1.2 million or 21 percent of Jakarta's eligible voters had not been registered.
But commission member Muflizar said that the survey did not make sense. "There are about 7.8 million eligible voters in Jakarta. Some six million or over 87 percent are on the list. The re-extension period would surely add more names on it. How do they determine that 21 percent have not been registered?" he said.
The Jakarta Population and Civil Registration Agency reported three months ago that there were about 5.8 million potential voters in the city. After a verification process, the commission trimmed the number to 5.6 million, saying some names had been recorded more than once. He said that the commission would announce the permanent voter list on Tuesday.