Ballot box blues in Lembata

In Lembata, East Nusa Tenggara, people find the voting procedure difficult to grasp. Many of those who have participated in a voting simulation held last week say the procedure is confusing. Some are thinking about not casting their ballot on April 9.

The parliamentary elections will be held in a few days. However as is the case in other regions, in Lembata, East Nusa Tenggara, there are still people who have no idea as to how to use their right to vote. In this year's elections, voters are required to mark their choice in ink rather than to perforate the ballot sheet, as was the case in the last elections. In a ballot simulation held last Monday, none of ten participants understood how to mark their choice.

Petronola Peni (40), a local resident, said she attended the simulation because she wants to understand the voting procedures, enabling her to vote for the candidate of her preference. A widow with three children who works as a stone and sand labourer in the Waikomo River, Petronola says she needed seven minutes to mark her choice on four ballot papers. She could only mark her choice on two papers. "The letters on the ballot papers are too small. It's a big problem", she says, even more because she claims the pen is too big.

Meanwhile, Marta Lepa (65), a farmer, was in poll station for about an hour without knowing how to mark the ballot papers. She says she was confused as to how to fold and mark the papers. "It was so easier in the last election. Now, the ballot papers are too big. I folded them incorrectly. I consider boycotting the elections", Marta says.

Responding to the issue, an officer involved in the organisation of the ballot simulation, Head of Advocacy of the Seaside Society Forum (Forkomdisir) Sisko Making,  says that the Elections Commission (KPUD) has the resources to work with grass roots organisations on voter education. "It is necessary to counteract the suggestion that KPUD would only be concerned with elites," Sisko says. If voters cannot exercise their rights properly, KPUD is responsible. However, the Head of the KPUD voter education working group in Lembata, Alexius Rehi, asserts that educationg people at the grass root level "is the task of the political parties". For them, he says, "it is an opportunity to present themselves". (Alexander Taum)