JEDDAH, 18 September 2004 — The Consulate General of Indonesia has made elaborate arrangements for its expatriate community to vote in the final round of the country’s presidential election due on Monday.
As many as 27,449 Indonesians in the Western province are registered with the consulate to cast their votes for the election which is being contested by five candidates including the present President Megawati Sukarnoputri and former Security Minister Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, Consul General Tajuddien Noor told a press conference. Registered voters include 6,376 in Makkah, 3,778 in Madinah and 13,579 in Jeddah.
Aside from Noor, the Jeddah-based overseas election committee of the Indonesian expat community, headed by H. Abdul Muis Basith as chairman and Suyatman Ahmad Karno as secretary, will supervise the turnout of voters at 16 polling stations in the province, seven of them in Jeddah - three at the consulate and four at the Indonesian school. The other polling stations are three in Makkah, Aziziah, and one in Madinah and one each in Tabuk, Yanbu, Taif, Abha and Baha.
“Twenty buses will operate all around Jeddah to transport voters to their polling stations,” the consul general said, adding that buses are meant to help those residing or working in far-flung areas, especially women voters who cannot travel on their own. Besides, the community residing outside Jeddah is allowed to take advantage of the postal ballot system. Voters in places including Rabigh, Najran, Bisha and Jizan can send their votes by post under the committee’s supervision, Basith said.
The consul general and Basith thanked the Kingdom for facilitating the voting arrangements and urged the sponsors and employers to allow their Indonesian employees to vote between 8 a.m. and 11 p.m., like they did earlier in April and July when the community members voted respectively for the parliamentary and presidential first round elections. “The presidential election especially is a matter of collective pride for the community,” Noor said.
The consulate had registered 22,756 voters for the parliamentary election and 25,629 for the first round of the presidential election. “The turnout of voters was satisfactory,” he added. Indonesia’s eligible voters have to be above 17 years of age, but those under 17 can also vote if they are married. The 1.2 million Indonesian expats in the Kingdom include 600,000 in the Western Province.
