Indonesia’s Presidential Election Fair Despite Last Minute Changes

Posted on July 10th, 2009 rtio No comments  Print This Post

Woman Casts Her Vote in Jakarta

Jakarta – Friday, July 8, 2009 – Quickcount and exit polling shows a comfortable win for incumbent President Yudhoyono in July 8′s presidential election. While the official count is still a few weeks away, most observers reported a relatively free and fair election with disenfranchised voters as the only substantial concern. In the run up to election day there were numerous reports of voters not being listed on the voting lists present at the 400,000+ polling stations across Indonesia. To mitigate this, the election body (KPU) passed a constitutional law that allowed voters to come with the identification card (KPD) at the opening of polling stations to vote later in the day. Observers raised concerns given the short time frame to prepare for this change and for the possibility of voter fraud.

My visit to 4 polling stations only included 2 individuals who had come to register with their KPD cards, there were no significant irregularities and stations seemed well prepared. The polling stations had roughly 300-500 registered voters on their voting lists, the largest I heard of was about 1000. Polls were open from 8 am to noon and were generally a relaxed affair.

Additionally, the International Foundation for Elections Sytems (IFES), with the help of USAID, launched a watershed SMS reporting system at roughly 15% of polling stations. While these did not act as a parallel vote count or as a official report, the SMS reports seemed to correspond to the results.