Perludem: Voters Participation on the Second Round of Jakarta Local Election Will Increase

Deputy Director of the Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem), Khoirunnisa Nur Agustyati, says voters participation on the second round of Jakarta’s Local Election will increase. According to Khoirunnisa, this is because there are many eligible voters on the first round of the election that did not allowed to vote because of administrative error. If these voters are allowed to vote on the second round, the participation rate in the election might increase.

“One of the reasons why many voters did not vote on the first round is because of administrative error. They want to vote, but not allowed to because they were not registered on the Voters’ Registry,” says Khoirunnisa during a public discussion titled “Jakarta’s Local Election: Voters’ Rationality and Participation Rate” in Jakarta (02/27).

The National Coordinator of the People’s Voters Education Network (JPPR), Masykurudin Hafidz, predicts the same thing. According to Masykurudin, there are three factors behind the increase of participation, they are: support from national figure to candidates, blasphemy case, and religion factor.

“Because of these three factors, our attention is absorbed to Jakarta, and these are also the factors that might encourage voters to vote on election day,” says Masykurudin.

For the second round, any unregistered voter may apply his or her registration at the nearest kelurahan or neighborhood administrative office. It is expected that the Election Commission will be more aggressive in disseminating and announcing the procedure and mechanism for voter registration to wider audiences.