KPU to Reopen Voter Registration Booths Ahead of Gubernatorial Runoff Election
Jakarta. The General Elections Commission, or KPU, will start to reopen registration booths to update temporary voters' lists ahead of the second leg of the Jakarta gubernatorial election in April.
According to KPU guidelines, Jakarta residents will be required to show their identity cards during the registration process. Residents may also register telephonically through a hotline, or on the popular messaging app, WhatsApp.
The KPU also opened voter registration booths for Jakarta residents during the first round of the election, which took place on Feb. 15.
KPU Jakarta chairman Sumarno has promised that registration booths will reopen this week.
"Today, we will prepare the hotline service with city and provincial committees. We will also prepare mechanisms, assign staff and [prepare] other related matters. So citizens who cannot come to the registration booths, can register via WhatsApp. They will only need to send a photo of their identification cards for us to add [their details] into our database," Sumarno said on Monday (06/03).
Meanwhile, the commission announced that the widely criticized second campaign period for the runoff election will start on Tuesday, forcing incumbent Governor Basuki "Ahok" Tjahaja Purnama, and his deputy, Djarot Saiful Hidayat, to once again take mandatory leave.
The Ministry of Home Affairs is currently briefing its Jakarta regional secretary, Saefullah, and director general of regional autonomy, Sumarsono, to govern the city in Ahok's absence.
"The two [Saefullah and Sumarsono] are the strongest possible candidates [to become acting governors]. There are no other names," Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo told reporters in Bandung, West Java, on Monday.
The ministry is currently waiting for an official letter from Ahok and Djarot regarding their mandatory leave, which ministry officials expected to receive no later than Monday evening.
The two candidate pairs will officially be allowed to campaign from March 7 until April 15, followed by a mandatory three-day pre-election "quiet period."
Watch Indonesia Highlights at 8 p.m. tonight on the Jakarta Globe News Channel and Facebook Live to find out more about the Jakarta gubernatorial election process.
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