Jokowi-JK missing on Hong Kong ballot paper

JAKARTA. A campaign team official of the Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Jusuf Kalla presidential ticket says a volunteer in Hong Kong has reported that ballots sent there for overseas voters did not include a picture of the Jokowi-Kalla ticket.  

“Our volunteer opened the ballots but only found the picture of Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa,” Eva Kusuma Sundari said as quoted by kompas.com on Wednesday.

The news was widely circulated on the Internet as Zuhairi Misrawi, another campaign team member, posted a picture showing the invalid ballot paper on his Twitter account.

“Our team is checking whether similar cases have also occurred elsewhere,” Eva said.

She acknowledged that the Hong Kong incident was part of problems relating to fairness and the prevention of violations during overseas polling days, which will be held from July 4 to 6.

Eva said her team had filed a complaint with the General Elections Commission (KPU) regarding the difficulties faced by campaign team members and volunteers in registering as witnesses during overseas polling days.

“The KPU has not yet answered the letter, which had been signed by Tjahjo Kumolo [Jokowi-Kalla campaign team chairman]. Instead the KPU Hong Kong branch has asked for Anies Baswedan’s [Jokowi-Kalla campaign team spokesperson] signature. That is strange because Anies doesn’t have this responsibility,” she said.

The Jokowi- Kalla ticket is supported by a coalition led by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) that includes the National Awakening Party (PKB), the Hanura Party and the NasDem Party. The coalition secured 207 or 39.97 percent of the 560 seats at the House of Representatives during the legislative election on April 9. (dic)