Drop box system gives world’s highest regional voter turnout

KUCHING: Sarawak witnessed the highest regional voter turnout in the world when Indonesians visited the ballot box in their recent general election concluded on May 9.

Out of the 98,540 registered regional voters in Sarawak, 71,276 votes or 72.23 per cent were counted.

Indonesian Election Committee for Sarawak (PPLN - Panitia Pemilihan Luar Negeri) chairman Fathan Soetrisno said this was due to the drop box system that visited 346 areas with large concentrations of Indonesian workers statewide.

" This would not be possible without the cooperation of employers at factories and plantations we visited, some of whom set aside a space specially for the voting to take place," he told reporters in a press conference yesterday.

He explained that PPLN Sarawak adopted strategies that catapulted the turnout compared to last year's 50 per cent.

" We talked to the employers first to promote election awareness and get their support, then we talked to the workers."

In previous years, PPLN Sarawak relied on the postal system to carry postal votes to and from Indonesian voters in rural areas but this resulted in a dismal outcome. This changed when small teams set out with drop boxes and collected the ballot papers themselves.

Fathan said PPLN Sarawak is the only chapter that deployed drop boxes, which accounted for their exemplary outcome.

PPLN Sarawak hopes to get the cooperation of all employers again when their mobile units retrace their paths between June 25 and July 2 for the Indonesian Presidential Election 2014.

Voters who are within Kuching can cast their ballot papers at the Consulate General of the Republic of Indonesia from 9am to 5pm on July 6.

None of the 12 contesting parties secured 20 per cent of the votes to be eligible to elect candidates for president and deputy president.

While two parties fail to get any seat in parliament, the remaining 10 parties formed two coalitions - one fronted by Partai Demokrasi Indonesia Perjuangan ( PDIP)'s Joko Widodo (Jokowi); the other by Gerindra's Prabowo Subianto.

Indonesia will go to the polls on July 9.

Fathan (third left) presenting the outcome of a recent General Election to members of the media. Also seen are other members of the Indonesian Election Committee for Sarawak.