Indonesia's 2009 General Election Disappoints

But not everyone was able to vote in Indonesia's general election yesterday. In some regions of the country, the polling stations were nearly empty. Indonesia vice president Jusuf Kalla looks enthusiastic about casting his ballot in the Menteng area of Jakarta. Kalla came to the polling station with his wife, sons and daughters. At a polling station in Jakarta's Kemang area, presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto also looks eager to vote. Subianto is running on the Indonesia Movement Party (GERINDRA) ticket. Overall, General Election 2009 has been warmly welcome by Indonesians. But for an unusually high number of unregistered citizens, not being allowed to vote in this year's general election was very disappointing. [Prabowo Subianto, Presidential Candidate]: "I feel apprehensive, there are so many citizens who didn't get an invitation letter to become a voter. I heard that at this voting station, more than 40% of citizens didn't get an invitation." [Maylaffayza, Violinist]: "There are so many people whose want to become voters - even my friends, most of them want to vote, but they are unlisted. So I think there are so many aware citizens with a good spirit who could participate in the general election, but they are unlisted. How does this affect our country's fate in the future? Meanwhile in Surabaya, Indonesia's second largest city, many voting stations spread across the city were noticeably empty of voters. This year's general election allows citizens to vote for individual members of the legislature rather than just the party. But it seems that the public wasn't made very aware of this change in format. Many citizens feel it was difficult to vote because of technical problems at the voting stations. And as a result, about 35% of the citizens did not exercise their voting rights. [Ani, Surabaya Citizen]: "I think there were too many parties participating and too many names of legislative candidates. Even opening the voting ballot was difficult. For remote citizens like myself, the government didn't explain the new voting process well enough." [Wati & Lasmi, Surabaya, Indonesia]: "We are confused because we don't know the legislative candidates listed on the ballot, so we choose to vote like blind people." Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has asked the Indonesia Election Commission for an explanation of this issue. The Election Commission says it will ask unlisted citizens to register to vote in the upcoming July presidential election. NTD, Jakarta, Indonesia.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• ntd
• ntdtv
• news
• election
• indonesia
• general
• citizens
• voters
• voting
• polling
• presidential