ID :
53713
Fri, 04/03/2009 - 18:20
Auther :
Shortlink :
https://oananews.org//node/53713
The shortlink copeid
News Focus: RI 2009 POLLS A GAMBLE FOR CANDIDATES, VOTERS ALIKE
By Fardah
Jakarta, April 3 (ANTARA) - Indonesia will have its second direct legislative election on April 9 and presidential election on July 8 this year, after its first successful direct polls in 2004.
The 2004 general elections ran peacefully and smoothly, making the country and its 225 million population to be the world's third largest democracy in the world, after the United States and India.
However, today many eligible voters remain as confused as they were in the first direct polls in 2004 about which legislative candidates they should vote for.
Five years ago, there were 24 political parties participating in the elections, and then many eligible voters hardly knew about the legislative candidates.
"I don't know any of them. However, I will choose nice looking ones," said Dester, a housewife, while waiting for her turn to vote at a Pondok Gede polling station in Bekasi in April 2004.
This year, there is likely to be even greater confusion as the number of participating political parties has swollen significantly to 38 parties throughout Indonesia, plus six local parties in Aceh Province.
At the national level, some 11,215 legislative candidates are competing for 560 seats in the House of Representatives (DPR), and 1,109 for 132 seats in the Regional Representatives Council (DPD). At the regional level, 112,000 people are competing for 1,998 provincial legislative council seats and an estimated 1.5 million others are battling for 15,750 seats on district/municipal legislative councils.
In the capital city of Jakarta, 2,268 aspirants are fighting to grab 94 provincial legislative seats, 606 others are after 21 seats in the DPR and 41 will vie to win four DPD seats.
"I will just choose the party because I know none of the legislative candidates," said Ratih, a shop attendant at Jaticempaka, Bekasi, recently.
Asked about who she would support in the election of Regional Representatives Council (DPD) members, she said she had no idea as she knew nothing about the DPD and the people aspiring to sit in the Council.
"Anyway, I don't want to think about it. After all, I don't see any benefit in choosing any of them," said the young girl.
Fitrih, a 47-year-old career woman who has better access to information technology than Ratih, made efforts to access the Internet and visited a general elections website (www.caleg-pemilu2009.info/) to find the names of DPD candidates for her province.
After looking at photos and names of the candidates on the website, she was interested in one certain name and tried to click further to know the candidate's background, but it was in vain because the information she looked for was not available.
It seems the current General Elections Commission (KPU) has not learned much from the previous direct polls, nor listened enough to the 2004 Polls' eligible voters. And apparently KPU has failed to implement President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's instruction asking KPU to familiarize the public with the electoral processes long before poling day.
The failure was reflected in the result of a survey conducted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) which involved 1,200 respondents in 19 provinces last March.
According to the survey, more than 150 million eligible voters needed more information on various aspects of the electoral process so that they could vote correctly on polling day, according to the Jakarta Post daily on Thursday (April 2).
The IFES survey discovered that 84 percent of respondents wanted more information on candidacy requirements, 83 percent on vote-counting procedures, 81 percent on participating political parties, 80 percent on where and when to vote, and 74 percent wanted more information on voter registration.
"Overall, the majority of Indonesians still believe that they do not have enough or any information at all on the electoral process," IFES said.
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Strategic Development and Policy Studies Center (Puskaptis), as quoted by Media Indonesia daily on Friday (April 3), estimated that around 35 percent or 40 percent of eligible voters might become abstainers because of several factors, including the fact that they did not know who to vote.
Therefore, it is not surprising that a legislator categorized the upcoming general elections as the most expensive and complicated ones in the world.
"There are indications which support my opinion. For instance, the high cost, both national budget for parties or for individual legislator candidates. And then there are also external and internal conflicts, problems in the voting method, and the problems involving the fixed voters' lists," Sidharto, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Commission I, said recently.
The upcoming legislative elections could also be seen as a lottery both for eligible voters who plan to use their political right despite knowing little or nothing about the candidates, and for legislative candidates who have spent millions, or even billions of rupiahs in their efforts to get elected to legislative seats.
If they are lucky, aspirants could win House or DPD seats, and eligible voters could have trustworthy, honest and hard working representatives in the DPR and DPD. But, if they lose in the 'gamble', indebted or bankrupt candidates might go to mental hospitals!.
The Health Minister has ordered the country's 32 mental hospitals to put their doctors on standby status after the results of the legislative elections are made public.***
Jakarta, April 3 (ANTARA) - Indonesia will have its second direct legislative election on April 9 and presidential election on July 8 this year, after its first successful direct polls in 2004.
The 2004 general elections ran peacefully and smoothly, making the country and its 225 million population to be the world's third largest democracy in the world, after the United States and India.
However, today many eligible voters remain as confused as they were in the first direct polls in 2004 about which legislative candidates they should vote for.
Five years ago, there were 24 political parties participating in the elections, and then many eligible voters hardly knew about the legislative candidates.
"I don't know any of them. However, I will choose nice looking ones," said Dester, a housewife, while waiting for her turn to vote at a Pondok Gede polling station in Bekasi in April 2004.
This year, there is likely to be even greater confusion as the number of participating political parties has swollen significantly to 38 parties throughout Indonesia, plus six local parties in Aceh Province.
At the national level, some 11,215 legislative candidates are competing for 560 seats in the House of Representatives (DPR), and 1,109 for 132 seats in the Regional Representatives Council (DPD). At the regional level, 112,000 people are competing for 1,998 provincial legislative council seats and an estimated 1.5 million others are battling for 15,750 seats on district/municipal legislative councils.
In the capital city of Jakarta, 2,268 aspirants are fighting to grab 94 provincial legislative seats, 606 others are after 21 seats in the DPR and 41 will vie to win four DPD seats.
"I will just choose the party because I know none of the legislative candidates," said Ratih, a shop attendant at Jaticempaka, Bekasi, recently.
Asked about who she would support in the election of Regional Representatives Council (DPD) members, she said she had no idea as she knew nothing about the DPD and the people aspiring to sit in the Council.
"Anyway, I don't want to think about it. After all, I don't see any benefit in choosing any of them," said the young girl.
Fitrih, a 47-year-old career woman who has better access to information technology than Ratih, made efforts to access the Internet and visited a general elections website (www.caleg-pemilu2009.info/) to find the names of DPD candidates for her province.
After looking at photos and names of the candidates on the website, she was interested in one certain name and tried to click further to know the candidate's background, but it was in vain because the information she looked for was not available.
It seems the current General Elections Commission (KPU) has not learned much from the previous direct polls, nor listened enough to the 2004 Polls' eligible voters. And apparently KPU has failed to implement President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's instruction asking KPU to familiarize the public with the electoral processes long before poling day.
The failure was reflected in the result of a survey conducted by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) which involved 1,200 respondents in 19 provinces last March.
According to the survey, more than 150 million eligible voters needed more information on various aspects of the electoral process so that they could vote correctly on polling day, according to the Jakarta Post daily on Thursday (April 2).
The IFES survey discovered that 84 percent of respondents wanted more information on candidacy requirements, 83 percent on vote-counting procedures, 81 percent on participating political parties, 80 percent on where and when to vote, and 74 percent wanted more information on voter registration.
"Overall, the majority of Indonesians still believe that they do not have enough or any information at all on the electoral process," IFES said.
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by the Strategic Development and Policy Studies Center (Puskaptis), as quoted by Media Indonesia daily on Friday (April 3), estimated that around 35 percent or 40 percent of eligible voters might become abstainers because of several factors, including the fact that they did not know who to vote.
Therefore, it is not surprising that a legislator categorized the upcoming general elections as the most expensive and complicated ones in the world.
"There are indications which support my opinion. For instance, the high cost, both national budget for parties or for individual legislator candidates. And then there are also external and internal conflicts, problems in the voting method, and the problems involving the fixed voters' lists," Sidharto, deputy chairman of the House of Representatives (DPR)'s Commission I, said recently.
The upcoming legislative elections could also be seen as a lottery both for eligible voters who plan to use their political right despite knowing little or nothing about the candidates, and for legislative candidates who have spent millions, or even billions of rupiahs in their efforts to get elected to legislative seats.
If they are lucky, aspirants could win House or DPD seats, and eligible voters could have trustworthy, honest and hard working representatives in the DPR and DPD. But, if they lose in the 'gamble', indebted or bankrupt candidates might go to mental hospitals!.
The Health Minister has ordered the country's 32 mental hospitals to put their doctors on standby status after the results of the legislative elections are made public.***
