Leaders Urged to Reduce Abstainers in Wake of Indonesia Election
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26 March 2019 20:55 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Home Affairs Minister Tjahjo Kumolo ordered regional leaders and village heads across the country to help suppress the number of possible abstainers ahead of the 2019 Indonesia election.
“The government has initiated a movement where we asked every regional to village level to fully back the upcoming legislative election and the presidential election by urging people to visit voting ballots and avoid abstaining,” said Tjahjo at the Constitutional Court headquarters in Jakarta today, March 26.
Tjahjo stressed that society’s participation level in the election will strongly affect Indonesia’s democratic quality.
“We are optimistic that the 80 percent intended participation level yearned by the general elections commission (KPU) will be achieved,” said the Home Affairs Minister.
Several Indonesian survey institutes predict that the number of abstainers in the 2019 presidential election will grow. Indonesian Survey Circle (LSI) Denny JA, based on the study that they did in less than a month of the presidential election, claimed that participation levels have only reached 65.2 percent.
Meanwhile, the data KPU provided showed a varying degree of voters’ participation within the past three elections; from 23 percent (2009 election) to 30 percent abstainers (2014 election).
FRISKI RIANA
