A voter casts his ballot at Jakarta polling station.(Photo: Xinhua/VNA)
Jakarta (VNA) – At least 160,000 residents in Jayapura, theprovincial capital of Papua, would vote in the general election on April 18following several logistical glitches on the general election day.
People in Abepura and South Jayapura districts had to delay their voting rightsafter polling stations in the area encountered problems like shortage ofballots or no ballots being delivered at all.
Indonesia’s election commission (KPU) said that all voting in the cases wasseen as invalid, and locals had to go to polling stations once again on April18 to vote.
Papua General Elections Commission (KPU Papua) headTheodorus Kossay said that the commission did not have enough time to send theballots to hundreds of polling stations on April 17. The Elections SupervisoryAgency recommended the election be postponed until April 18 from 7:00 to 13:00.
Data from KPU Papua showed that there were 744polling stations in Abepura and South Jayapura, with 88,425 registered votersin Abepura and 72,044 registered voters in South Jayapura.
Indonesia opened the polls to more than 192 million eligible voters onApril 17 in one of the world's biggest single-day elections. For the first time,Indonesia held its presidential and legislative elections on the same day, withmore than 245,000 candidates running for more than 20,000 seats.
The election takes place in the context of the country sustaining 5-percenteconomic growth in half a decade and facing big challenges, including stagnanteconomic development and increasing gaps between the rich and the poor as wellas between localities.
Initial results showed that Incumbent Indonesian President Joko Widodo isleading the the presidential election held on April 17 by 10 percent over hisrival Prabowo Subianto. - VNA
VNA
