"A situation like this can trigger instability that arises not from the community, but due to the inability of the KPU as an organizer and in coordination with the local government," said the Maluku Golkar Party functionary, Dharma Oratmangun, who was contacted from Ambon (the capital of Maluku province) on Thursday.
He also emphasized that the Maluku provincial KPU also seemed unprofessional and had deceived the community in Tanimbar Islands district (KKT) because of its promise before April 5, 2019, all newly distributed ballots replaced the damaged ones but the fact was zero.
The organizer actually showed unpreparedness in terms of holding the election and the people who had to otherwise serve panicked.
Moreover, the voter turnout decreased by almost 50 percent for the two sub-districts that were delayed or had not implemented voting to date, seen from the rest of the ballot papers.
This condition really gives a visible reflection that the organizers, and in this case, the Maluku KPU, appointed to carry out this activity were very non-anticipatory and unprepared, and the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) should immediately give a warning or sanction to the KPU.
There were 19 thousand ballots that were declared damaged and should have been anticipated at least on H-10 so they needed to be printed faster so that the distribution also quickly arrived at the polling stations.
The KKT regional election desk almost reached 300 but were not involved in folding and sorting ballots.
It is said, KKT is an archipelago, meaning that the logistics should be printed and sent faster and then checked, and if need be they hire a plane.
"I personally went to the police station urging the KPU to immediately make an official statement over whether there was a breakthrough or not, but it was not carried out and they only realized one hour later in the city of Saumlaki, the capital of KKT," he said.
So, the quality of the implementation of the election was very chaotic and if the organizers violate the nature of democracy like this, then how do they function?
"We the legislative candidates have to be harmed by this pattern of work, because there has been no vote and the level of community participation has declined," he said.
Yesterday, there were many who could not vote because it was late at night, even though they only brought ID cards because there were no invitation letters or C-6 forms.
Translator: Eliswan Azly
Editor: Bambang Purwanto
Copyright © ANTARA 2019
