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Indonesia: Vulnerable groups enjoy improved access to voting

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Komnas HAM says that voters from vulnerable groups were well facilitated during the presidential election on 9 July 2014.


The National Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) said that voters from vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities, prison inmates and hospital inpatients, were well facilitated during the presidential election on 9 July 2014.

Komnas HAM presidential election monitoring coordinator Maneger Nasution said that there had been a clear improvement since the last election, as reported by kompas.com.

"The [organisers] were able to help certain voters, such as prisoners and disabled voters, fulfil their constitutional rights," he said at the Komnas HAM headquarters in Jakarta.

Furthermore, the polling stations were made more accessible for the disabled and hospital patients, he said. Those who could not walk to their nearest polling stations were picked up by car from the hospitals.

Despite the improvements, Komnas HAM said it had found several weaknesses in the final voter list at the General Elections Commission (KPU).

"The KPU was still using data from the legislative election [in April], even though voter information had changed. Some disabled voters had not been registered [for the April election], and were still not registered for the presidential election," he said.

Komnas HAM Commissioner Ansori Sinungan added that the Commission had also contributed to the improvement of facilities at polling stations, having actively reported on the lack of services for vulnerable groups.

"For example, we found that only 14 of around 900 eligible voters could vote at a hospital in Semarang [Central Java], but after we made some suggestions, up to 1,200 people could vote. That is one of the examples of how Komnas HAM contributed," he said.

Date: 15 July 2014

Source: Jakarta Post