2009 Indonesian Presidential Election, Take II

Some 176 millions Indonesians went in throngs to the voting booths today (yesterday as of this blog is written) to elect their President and Vice Presidents for the 2009 - 2014 service. My experience has been remarkably positive and simple. My mom, our maid and myself went out from the house at 11:30 and walked about half a block to the makeshift voting booth. Voting booths were set up on each Local Neighborhood Units, referred to in Indonesian as "RT / RW." RT / RW stands for "Rukun Tetangga" (Neighborhood Association) and RW stands for "Rukun Warga" (Community Association) are two common types of organization formed by community members, acknowledged and supported by the central government. They are the lowest rank in the administration hierarchy of the Indonesian government. There are about 30 - 50 households in an RT / RW.

Technically, it is part of a village that has been assigned its own official governorship, with limited rights to take care of its own affairs. Much in the same way that the City of Los Angeles oversees the sub cities of (to name a few) Torrance, Hollywood, Manhattan Beach, Long Beach and Malibu, the City of Jakarta oversees many neighborhoods that were annexed by the city, like my neighborhood.

I don't know if the time of the day (11:30am) contributed to the short line, but we stood in line for about less than five minutes, and quickly reached the registration area. It's a three-step process: I handed in my registration paper that proved that I was a registered voter within jurisdiction of my local area , the guy gave me a number and I wait for my number to be called from the other desk. Of course, my number was called right away, and the guy gave me the official paper ballot, and directed me to the booth. There, I unfolded the ballot and there were 3 boxes, each with pictures of the Presidents and Vice Presidents inside each box, and they were numbered 1, 2 and 3.

Line going to the booth

Situation inside voting booth, pretty empty by then

This year, they want us to checkmark the picture of the candidate of my choosing using a red marker. Last year it was the puncture method, where you punch through the pictures of your candidate. Apparently, disputes have arisen with that method, with critics complaining that foul players within the Election Commission were able to double punch a ballot, thereby effectively voiding the vote (overvote); or of some cases where the voter did not entirely punch through the paper (faint punch), and foul officials simply punch through on other candidate. Other critics also point to imperfections with the ballot papers, where there were accidental holes due to printing or ripped ballots due to faulty paper design, similar to problems encountered in the 2000 US Presidential Elections with voting cards having dimples or hanging "chads." Checkmarking is supposed to alleviate these problems and signify voters' intention more clearly.

Current results from the LSI (Lembaga Survei Indonesia - Indonesia Survey Institute) Quick Count, which is the unofficial result of the vote, puts current incumbent President Yudhoyono - Vice President Boediono at 60.84% over their two rivals. Quick count results have proven to be highly reliable in the past, and if accurate, it would mean that the current incumbent would win re-election in only one round. If no single candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, or 20 percent of the vote in 17 provinces, there will be a run-off between two candidates on September 8.

http://tnp.kpu.go.id/pilpres200907/sms/static/

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