Data on voters with disability are nowhere to be found on the temporary and fixed voters lists issued by the KPU Jakarta (Jakarta Election Management Board). This is one of the several field findings from the District Coordinators of the Jakarta Election Monitoring Team. The team was established by the People’s Voters Education Network (JPPR) as part of their activities for AGENDA (General Election Network for Disability Access).
“In our meeting with KPU Jakarta last month, Mr. Sumarno, a member of KPU Jakarta, said that data on disability will be inputted into the Other Information column of the Temporary and Fixed Voters Lists. Yet in reality, we still couldn’t find the data, even though the column does exist. Our question is, is this because of the negligents of the officers in charge in inputting the data, or there is a lack of communication between the top management with the lower officers?” said masyukurudin Hafids, JPPR’s Program Officer for AGENDA. Hafidz continued that in the early survey to establish the Data on the Potential Citizens with Voting Rights (DP4), data on disability are collected by the survey officers and were put into a separate column, titled “Persons With Disability”. “This column is taken out in the Temporary and Fixed Voters Lists, along with other columns, such as columns on Religion and Educational Background. However, specifically for data on disability, it should be moved into Other Informations columns instead, and not taken out completely. This does not happen,” explained Hafidz.
This and several other findings were the focus of the discussion at the meeting in Duren Sawit, last Wednesday, 20 June 2012. It was the second meeting for district coordinators for the Pre-Election Monitoring Activity, after the first one on 31 May 2012. After this, JPPR will form a monitoring team by recruiting 50 election observers, which will be deployed to 5 districts in Jakarta. They will consist of 25 JPPR’s observers and 25 observers from disabled communities.
