Gov't Agencies to Resolve Voter Data Issues Prior to 2019 Elections
Jakarta. Indonesia's election watchdog called on the relevant agencies on Friday (14/09) to ensure that all eligible voters have electronic national identity cards to ensure their inclusion in the final voters' list for next year's legislative and presidential elections.
Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) chairman Abhan said the Citizenship and Civil Records Agency (Dukcapil) could implement a jemput bola system to achieve this. The term, which means "to pick up the ball" in football jargon, refers to running towards the ball rather than waiting for it.
"We will coordinate with Dukcapil, so they can use the jemput bola system to record and process citizens' data," Abhan said, as quoted by BeritaSatu.com. This will see officials travel to different parts of the country – especially remote areas – to provide civil registration services free of charge.
In accordance with the 2017 Election Law, eligible voters must have electronic national identity cards, or e-KTP, to be included in the final voters' list.
However, those without e-KTP will still be eligible to vote, but their names will be included in a special voters' list instead.
As the elections approach, duplicated voter data also remains an issue.
Viryan Azis of the General Elections Commission (KPU), said an exception should be made for first-time voters to ensure that they are eligible to participate in the 2019 elections.
"It's possible to give first-time voters some kind of a special treatment to guarantee their constitutional right to vote," he said.
According to Viryan, first-time voters should have their e-KTPs printed early so they can be included in the final voters' list. He said this would ensure that administrative challenges do not prevent any eligible voters from exercising their democratic rights, although the final decision on such an initiative still rests with the government.
The KPU is currently recapitulating the final voters' list to eliminate duplicated voter data as part of ongoing efforts to ensure a smooth election next year.
The commission's most recent estimate shows that less than 2 percent of voter data is currently duplicated.
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