Anita Rachman & Camelia Pasandaran – The government body tasked with supervising elections has painted a grim picture ahead of the 244 provincial, regional and municipal polls scheduled to be held this year.

Nur Hidayat Sardini, chairman of the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), warned that the Ministry of Home Affairs and the General Elections Commission (KPU) were in danger of repeating last year's farcical situation in which as many as 40 percent of eligible voters were left off the final voters register and were unable to cast ballots.

Also of concern was the fact that, like last year, there were likely to be voters registered multiple times or voters who were registered multiple times using false identities who could cast thousands of votes. "This is very concerning and a very serious problem," Nur said.

Bawaslu member Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo said this year's elections would likely face the same "significant problems," as well as poor services provided to voters in remote locations.

Bambang reiterated concerns about Bawaslu's lack of power to police election violations. "We cannot give them any sanctions, all we can do is report the cases to the KPU," he said. "The law [on the implementation of elections] does not give us authority as an executor. How can we have that power when we don't even have the authority to select our own members?"

The Constitutional Court, in response to an application by Bawaslu, is currently reviewing the 2007 Law on Election Organizers, specifically articles concerning the formation of honorary councils that have the power to discipline members of the KPU and those on the selection of members of the regional Election Supervisory Committees (Panwaslus).

Bambang said Panwaslu in Blora district, Central Java, had found more than 10,000 names registered multiple times in seven of 16 subdistricts.

"This should have received special attention because we're concerned that this situation is happening not only in Blora, but in many other regions in the country as well," he said. "We know there has been much criticism directed against us but we need full authority to enforce the law; we don't want to be just an accessory."

Both Bawaslu and the National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) are concerned about this year's local polls. The parties signed an agreement on Friday to tighten their monitoring of the 2010 local elections.

Government officials have said they would ensure the 2009 problems with voter registration would not occur this year.

"It won't happen again," Home Affairs Minister Gamawan Fauzi told the Jakarta Globe.