With just over one month to go until the historic direct election for Jakarta governor, voter registration remains a major cause for concern – and conflict.

The Jakarta Elections Commission extended the registration period by three days to June 28 to accommodate eligible voters who might have been overlooked by the neighborhood unit heads who helped the commission register voters.

The extension followed protests and rallies by unregistered voters, many of whom suspected there had been a deliberate attempt to prevent them from exercising their constitutional right on Aug. 8.

It was apparently such suspicions that prompted four people, believed to be supporters of the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), to try to steal a voter list from a registration officer in Karet Tengsin in Central Jakarta on Tuesday.

While the incident is totally unacceptable, the mounting public criticism facing the election commission regarding voter registration could cost the poll body its credibility and eventually adversely affect the legitimacy of the election itself.

The voter registration workload of the election commission has been significantly reduced thanks to the help of the provincial bureaucracy, which made full use of heads of neighborhood units to register eligible voters.

The voter registration was conducted based on data on eligible voters collected prior to the 2004 elections. Each neighborhood unit then singled out residents who held Jakarta ID cards, and crossed out non-Jakarta residents and those who had died since the 2004 elections.

Such a census update has occurred twice since last year, but the experiences of a number of neighborhood unit heads in West Jakarta revealed that the elections commission did not make changes to the list of eligible voters despite the population update. No wonder that a number of dead people, non-Jakarta residents and minors have been found on the voter list.

Hopefully the mix-ups do not represent the general situation of the preparation work for this landmark election. But the latest survey conducted by the Institute of Economic and Social Studies and Development should be taken into account.

The noted research institute found that some 1.2 million eligible voters were not registered until last week. That's quite a large number, and one which the election commission was unable to handle despite the three extra days for registration.

Many doubted the extension of the registration period would work to boost the voter turnout as the poll body required people to register with the election commission at the municipal or regency level. Most Jakartans were too busy to go to the poll commission office, let alone to seek letters of domicile from neighborhood unit heads. For those living on the Seribu Islands, the trip to the regional poll commission office would take hours by boat and cost them a reasonable amount of money.

A high turnout at an election does not guarantee that democracy is working. But it still means everything to the election's credibility.

The landmark direct election for the Jakarta governor and deputy governor in particular needs a high voter turnout in order to build a provincial government that enjoys popular legitimacy. This is the first time that Jakarta's people will have the chance to determine their leaders themselves.

The participation of all eligible voters is crucial as whoever is elected governor will feel huge pressure to deliver on his promises. It will be regrettable if a group of people call for a boycott of the election, saying the voter registration process has denied their or others' right to vote.

There have been reports of PKS supporters demanding party leaders withdraw their nomination of Adang Daradjatun and Dani Anwar as the gubernatorial and deputy gubernatorial candidates due to the problematic voter registration.

Such a withdrawal of support, if it happens, will force delays to the election schedule as the law will not allow a candidate to run unchallenged. It will also spark uncertainty about the future development of the capital city, and, worse, may incite conflict.

With so much at stake, the Jakarta Election Commission and administration have to find a breakthrough to settle the voter registration issue. Such a solution can only be sought if all parties manage to maintain their composure.