Jakarta – A citizen group has criticized the general election commission (KPU) and its Jakarta chapter (KPUD) for having a regulation that keeps the public in the dark regarding their registration as voters.
Under the 2008 general elections law, the final list of voters (DPT) is only available to legislative member and political party candidates.
Urban Poor Consortium (UPC) coordinator Wardah Hafidz said the public had a right to know whether they were registered on the list of voters.
"The regulation has to be revised," she said. "It cannot reject the basic right of citizens to know whether they are registered voters or not.
"It is a good thing they are willing to vote. Why deny them access to the voters list? It is just wrong if the list is only available to political parties."
The general election will be held in less than three months, with the final list of voters finalized in November 2008.
According to the KPUD, more than seven millions voters have registered in Jakarta. They will pick their legislative members in the first round of the general elections in April at 17,048 voting locations (TPS) throughout the city.
The number of legislative member candidates for Jakarta province reached 2,268 from 44 political parties – who will compete for 94 seats. Furthermore, Jakarta will choose 41 candidates for the Regional Representative Council (DPD).
On Thursday, the UPC protested the KPU and the KPUD for violating the principles of transparency and public participation. The organization hosted rallies at both offices.
Eko Sujarwo, a UPC research and development officer, said the organization had asked the KPUD for the final voters list about a month ago, but was denied access.
Eko said UPC might take the case to the Judicial Commission to review the general elections law.
"KPUD Makassar, Surabaya, Pare Pare and Yogyakarta had no trouble releasing the list. We gave them a flash disk and was given the data instantly," Wardah said.
"Only KPUD Jakarta and the National KPU rejected our request. KPUD have given the data to us now, but why did we have to rally for it?" she asked.
Why all the secrecy?
Sumarno, member of KPUD Jakarta, said, "We agree that the DPT is public data, but the law states the DPT can only be disclosed to political parties."
He said KPUD was not intentionally denying the public access to UPC. The reason KPUD did not hand over a copy of the list when asked by the UPC, he said, was they could not give out a hard copy version because of the size of the data of more than seven million people.
The permanent voters list contains details of names, sex, birthplace, date of birth, home address and ID numbers, Sumarno said. "If the information falls into the wrong hands, it could be misused. We will not, however, deny any credible organization access to the list."
The KPU has urged the government to issue a government regulation in lieu of law, to allow those not on the voters list to register themselves, Sumarno said,
"The KPUD has actually let the public check their registration by sending them their names and ID numbers through SMS" before the list had been finalized, he said.
The temporary list of voters was published at every subdistrict office before the list was finalized, he said. Wardah said the UPC would fight for those who had already registered but did not appear on the list. (iwp)