Serious Voting Irregularities in Jakarta Election: Nasdem
Jakarta. Lawyers from the National Democratic Party, or Nasdem, said they have found serious violations of Jakarta residents' constitutional rights to vote during the gubernatorial election on Wednesday (15/02).
Nasdem, along with Golkar, the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) are backing incumbent governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama in the election.
According to information the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) released on Thursday (16/02), there were more violations of election rules in Jakarta than in any other region during the nationwide regional elections on Wednesday, with 40 cases lodged in the capital out of 61 cases reported nationwide.
Nasdem’s Taufik Basari said one of the most common violations of election rules in Jakarta was not registering residents in the voters’ list, known as DPT.
According to Taufik, residents not registered in the DPT should still have been able to cast their votes by showing up at polling stations with an official invitation letter to vote from the civil registry, an electronic ID card (e-KTP) or a Family Card (KK).
"But a lot of them were not allowed to cast their votes on Wednesday," Taufik said at a press conference in Jakarta.
Taufik also claimed that many polling station officials did not act professionally and even made it unnecessarily hard for voters to cast their votes.
"The Bawaslu should investigate these cases of voting irregularities. They can use our reports," he said.
Taufik's team so far has collected 30 reports of voting irregularities from polling stations in Jakarta.
He hoped that Jakarta residents who were unable to cast their vote on Wednesday will be able to do so in the expected run-off election in April.
Around 7.1 million voters are registered in the country's capital city of Jakarta, where the race for governor is turning into one of the more divisive political battles in the country's democratic era.
The Jakarta election has inflamed religious tensions and has been colored by numerous intrigues involving senior politicians that include plot accusations, legal battles and charges of conspiracy.
If none of the governor nominees could get more than 50 percent of the Jakarta residents' votes, a run-off election is scheduled for April 19.
The General Election Commission (KPU) said it will announce the official results of the Jakarta election within the next two weeks.
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