Indonesia General Election: Ambassador Estimates 30 Pct Of Registered Voters In Malaysia To Take Part
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 (Bernama) -- Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Hermono expects around 30 per cent of the 832,420 Indonesians who reside in Malaysia and are registered as voters to fulfil their responsibilities in the 2024 General Election.
This was based on the turnout trend shown in several previous elections. "Before this, there was a slight fluctuation but around that (30 per cent)," he told Bernama.
Hermono said six polling centres will be opened this Sunday for the early voting process for registered voters in Malaysia, namely at the World Trade Centre (WTC) Kuala Lumpur involving 222,945 voters, Johor Bahru (the capital city in the southern state of Johor)(2,684), Penang (a state on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia) (5,375), Kota Kinabalu (capital of the state of Sabah) (2,811), Tawau (a district in Sabah) (20,247), and Kuching (the capital city in the state of Sarawak) (2,988).
The election exercise through mobile ballot boxes has also been carried out in Indonesian settlement areas as well as factories and farms from February 1 until this Saturday.
He said the Indonesian Foreign Election Committee (PPLN) also conducted postal voting which was sent to the addresses of 156,367 voters in Malaysia on Jan 2 with the cooperation of Pos Malaysia.
Hermono said that although various methods were used to encourage them to exercise their rights, the turnout was not very high because some of them did not intend to vote.
"There is also a possibility that he did not receive a ballot paper or that the place did not have a mobile ballot box (mobile voting) or he did not know how to vote," he said.
"For those who are in factories and farms, the response has been good because they usually live in workers' dormitories (hostels), so their participation rate is good. But in the community it is less because they may have gone out to work," he added.
Hermono said the election voting process in Malaysia often receives attention in Indonesia because it involves the largest number of overseas voters. According to him, the number of registered voters in Malaysia is about 47.55 per cent of the total 1.75 million voters in the overseas voter register worldwide for this election.
To ensure the smooth flow of the voting process in Kuala Lumpur, Hermono said a total of 1,500 PPLN personnel were involved in conducting the election and received good cooperation from the Royal Malaysian Police (PDRM) and Wisma Putra.
"Thank you to the Malaysian government because until today we have received full support to carry out these elections smoothly and peacefully," he said, who hoped that the election process in Malaysia would continue to run smoothly and in an orderly manner without any untoward incident.
About 240 million Indonesians will exercise their democratic rights in the 2024 Election on February 14 to elect a president, vice president, members of the People's Consultative Assembly, and representatives for local legislatures.
-- BERNAMA
