Thirty Thousands Citizens in West Sulawesi Might Lose Their Voting Rights

Around thirty thousands citizens in West Sulawesi might lose their voting rigths because they haven’t received the electronic-Resident Identity Card (e-KTP). In the local election regulation, e-KTP is required for any citizen who wish to be registered as legitimate voter in election. This might potentially cause problem in the electoral process.

“Any voter who hasn’t registered in DP4 (List of Potential Voters) during the authentification of DPS (temporary voters list) will be registered in new voters list instead. Meanwhile, potential voters who haven’t received their e-KTP will be registered in AC KWK. These data will then be submitted to the Civil Registry Office. The Civil Registry Office will only register citizen who is eligible (over 17 years old), while non-eligible citizen will be rejected. These rejected citizens might be losing their voting rights in the upcoming election,” says a member of the Election Monitoring Body (Bawaslu) of West Sulawesi, Muhammad Yunus (10/31).

Those 30 thousands citizens consist of 15 thousands citizens of Majene Regency and 15 to 20 thousands potential voters from all over West Sulawesi.

“The staffs at the Civil Registry Office said that they are unable to handle 15.000 voters daya. It’s just a herculean task for them,” says Yunus.

In order to prevent the lost of voting rights, Yunus says that he and his team have already proposed a solution. He requested KPU to accept the registration of all potential voters who are able to prove their identity with birth certificate or marriage certificate.

“KPU should make a Memorandum of Understanding with Bawaslu and the Civil Registry Office to facilitate the registration process of voters who haven’t received their e-KTP. This is to prevent any social conflict during the electoral process,” Yunus said.