JAKARTA: The Indonesian Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) has suggested that the country’s Election Commission (KPU) redo the postal voting process for its citizens in Malaysia, following the discovery of marked ballot papers at Bangi and Kajang in Selangor, recently.
Bawaslu chief Abhan said there were 319,293 Indonesians in Malaysia who were eligible to vote.
The postal voting process was held on April 7, while polling at a voting centre managed by the Overseas Election Organising Committee (PPLN) in Kuala Lumpur was held last Sunday.
“We recommend for all postal ballot papers received to not be counted during the counting process tomorrow (after completion of the voting in Indonesia),” said Abhan.
He said the revoting process would be decided by the KPU and PPLN Kuala Lumpur.
Last Thursday, hundreds of bags containing about 50,000 ballot papers were found at a shop at Taman Universiti in Sungai Tangkas, Bangi and a house in Bandar Baru Bangi.
It is understood that all the ballot papers were marked in favour of Indonesian President Joko Widodo and the legislative candidate allied to him.
There are more than 1 million Indonesian voters in Malaysia eligible to vote in the Indonesian general election, including the 319,293 postal voters.
Tomorrow, more than 192 million Indonesians will be eligible to elect the president of the world’s third largest democratic country for 2019 to 2024.
Widodo, better known as Jokowi, will defend his position for the second term, with his new partner, Ma’ruf Amin – an influential Indonesian cleric – as the vice-presidential candidate.
They will go up against former military chief Prabowo Subianto and his running mate Sandiaga Uno, who is a former Jakarta deputy governor.