Senin, 22 Apr 2019 22:35
By Fardah
Jakarta, 22/4
(Antara) - Indonesia held the world's biggest and most complex
single-day vote on April 17, 2019, where 192 million people queued up at
some 810 thousand polling stations across its 34 provinces in the
country and overseas.
Yansen Adrys David, heading Polling
Station (TPS) No. 5 in Bengkalis City, Riau Province, passed away on
April 20 of a heart attack, after working for two days at a stretch
after serving several hundreds of voters on polling day.
In
Bantan Tua Village, Bantan Sub-district, also Bengkalis District,
Suratinizar, head of the TPS No. 2, lost his life in a traffic accident
on April 18, 2019. There were indications that he may have been
exhausted. He returned home from the polling station at 2 a.m. local
time (On April 18). He later headed to his office for work, and in the
afternoon, en route home, he lost his life in a traffic accident.
Bengkalis
General Election Office (KPU) Head Fadihilah Al Mausuly confirmed the
deaths of two heads of the Bengkalis polling station working committees
(KPPS) from exhaustion after clocking lengthy hours on polling day.
In
Riau, five people were reported to have died in election-related
incidents, while 13 officers fell ill from exhaustion. No less than
three officers reportedly blacked out during counting of ballots in
Pekanbaru, Kampar, and Pelalawan District, Riau, respectively.
Rustam
Efendi, secretary of the KPU office in Manokwari, West Papua confirmed
that the electoral process was very exhausting because it took a long
time and needed extra accuracy.
"It took more than 10 hours to
run a polling station, from the voting process and the ballot counting
to the recapitulation of all the ballots," he noted.
The
polling stations opened their doors at 7 a.m. local time and many
finished the counting process at 4 a.m., or 6 a.m. and some even at 10
a.m. the following day.
The election officers had a tough task
because they had to serve voters and finish the counting of the
ballots. They only had breaks for meals, while Muslims had prayer
breaks, he said.
Basically, election officers had to work
continuously for nearly 48 hours, as they had to arrange the logistics
and facilities for the electoral process, one day prior to polling day.
"They did not sleep well for at least two days and two nights as they were thinking about their tasks," he said.
On
polling day, voters cast their ballot for the president and vice
president, members of the House of Representatives (DPR), senators of
the Regional Representative Councils (DPD), members of the Provincial
Legislative Council (DPRD 1), and members of the District/Municipality
Legislative Council (DPRD II).
Numerous voters were taken
aback by the complex nature of the elections along with low knowledge on
whom to elect, apart from the president and vice president.
They
were given five ballots of different colors. In Pondok Gede, Bekasi
City, West Java Province, for instance, a ballot for DPD has 50 pictures
of senator candidates, while ballots of DPR, DPRD I, and DPRD II, bore
pictures of 20 political parties in every ballot, and each party fielded
nearly 11 legislator candidates.
With the polling stations
closing down in the afternoon on voting day, officers had to begin
counting votes that generally lasted until the next day.
Throughout
Indonesia, the death toll was 54 TPS officers and 10 police officers,
while 34 others were reported to have taken ill from overwork, according
to Viryan Azis, KPU Commissioner in Jakarta, April 22.
House
Speaker Bambang Soesatyo has condoled the deaths of the election
officers. "I convey my deepest condolences to the victims and their
families. Their sacrifice in upholding democracy in Indonesia will not
be in vain," Soesatyo said in a statement.
"The election
system is complex and polling stations located in regions with a
difficult terrain can result in exhaustion and physical pressures that
are unavoidable. Organizing an election can be time-consuming and can
even claim lives," he remarked.
He appealed to the government
to compensate the families of those who lost their lives. The senior
Golkar politician also urged local administrations to provide free
medical services to election officers, police and military personnel,
who fell ill during election duty.
"In fact, from the onset,
they should have been covered with life and medical insurances. Families
of the officers who are either sick or dead should have been helped by
the State," he added.
While the duration of the campaign was
seven months, the election process itself was complicated, and the field
officers were not covered by any insurance schemes, he noted.
The government should learn a lesson from this year's elections and make a note for the future, he said.
The
public would like to see a better-organized election the next time, and
this necessitates a change in the system, he stated. The changes must
be carried out from top to bottom and safety of field officers must be
made a priority, he added.
Sharing the House Speakers view,
Vice President M. Jusuf Kalla has sought to conduct an evaluation of the
implementation of the election since it was labeled a complicated
process.
Kalla suggested that the 2024 presidential and legislative election should be held separately.
The
just-ended elections were not only exhausting, but also allegedly
marred by problems such as delayed delivery of election logistics,
natural disasters, or cases of poll violations.
Hence, Bawaslu
ordered reelection to be held in the provinces of Banten, East Java,
South Sulawesi, West Sumatra, Jambi, and Papua, among others.
The
House Speaker appealed to the KPU, local KPUs (KPUD), and the Election
Supervisory Board (Bawasu) to ensure that revoting is conducted free of
any violations and lapses.
In addition, the Indonesian Rector
Forum (FRI) has released a statement in which it has asked election
executors to maintain neutrality and demonstrate the highest levels of
commitment to work.
"Hence, we appeal to those tasked with
executing the 2019 elections, specifically the KPU, Bawaslu, and the
Honorary Council of Election Executors (DKPP), to remain self-reliant
and neutral along with guaranteeing that the vote counting process is
held in line with the existent regulations," FRI Chairperson Prof. Dr
Dwi Aries Tina Palubuhu MA remarked April 22, 2019.
The FRI also appealed to the public to always put the nation's interests over and above those of particular groups or persons.
The
rectors also sought professionalism from the police and military in
their work along with maintaining a neutral stance while putting the
nation's interest above all.
They also called on presidential
candidates and political parties to exercise patience as they await the
outcome of the vote counting by the KPU.
Meanwhile, the
preliminary election result from the KPU's Ballot Count Information
System (Situng) showed Incumbent Joko Widodo (Jokowi) and Ma'ruf Amin
securing 11,608,261 votes, or 54.76 percent.
The pair of
challenger Prabowo Subianto and Sandiaga Salahuddin Uno won 9,589,418
votes, or 45.24 percent, according to Situng data monitored on the
official KPU website, April 22 at 7:15 a.m. local time.
The
KPU Situng had made an entry of the ballots after referring to data
received from C1 ballot count forms filled in by election officers at
polling stations.
The commission has, until now, entered C1
form data from 111,572 TPS, of the total 813,350 TPS across countries
and Indonesian representative offices overseas.
The KPU will
release the official results of the final vote recapitulation on May 22,
2019. Nonetheless, both presidential candidates' camps have declared
victory in the elections. The voter turnout was expected to surpass 80
percent. (INE)
EDITED BY INE
