Thousands Without e-ID May Not be Able to Vote in Papua

Thousands of voters in Papua have yet to have their identities registered under the electronic identification (e-ID), which could strip them of their voting rights in the upcoming elections.

Acting Papua Governor Sudarmo said he had instructed the Papua Social Affairs and Civil Registry Agency to speed up the e-ID registration of 627,815 voters. He also said the residents must be provided with a statement letter if the agency had not yet acquired the blank cards for the new e-ID.

“The voters who don’t own an e-ID or a statement letter [regarding their identities] cannot use their voting rights in the 2018 regional elections and the 2019 legislative and presidential elections,” Sudarmo said on Wednesday.

The Papua General Election Commission (KPUD) has said the temporary voters list for the province included 3,580,279 people.

Civil registry agency head Ribka Haluk said the officials have faced challenges in recording residents’ data after equipment was destroyed during conflict and resistance from the residents.

“There are voters across all regencies in Papua that have yet to have their data recorded. They are mostly in the Jayawijaya, Paniai and Lanny Jaya regencies,” Ribka said.

Meanwhile, Papua Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) member Pata said authorities found out about the issue following coklit— a campaign by the KPU for voter data verification.

“We found that there are residents who do not have registered identification yet. That is unfortunate as they cannot vote in the upcoming elections,” Pata said.

The provincial administration has only three weeks left to record the residents’ data as the KPUD will hold a plenary meeting to announce the final voters list.

Suparmo added if the administration could not register a significant number of people he would consult with related parties on special policies needed to make sure residents can still use their voting rights.

Courtesy : ThejakartaPost
Photo : Bintang papua

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