VIVAnews - The Elections in overseas countries may take place earlier. The reason for this is that in addition to coming to the voting spots, voters may send their votes through mailing services.
"The postal system is applied as an anticipation for those voters that cannot come to the voting spots on April 9 because the majority of overseas voters will be working and [the Elections] will be held on weekdays," said member of the Elections Commission (KPU), Andi Nurpati Baharudin, on Tuesday, March 3.
According to him, the elections committee will guarantee the confidentiality of the mailing system. The ballots for Jakarta II voting area (Central Jakarta, South Jakarta, Overseas) will be sent in three piles of envelopes. The first envelope is the one with the voters' addresses attached. The second envelope is used to return the ballots to the committee, while the third envelope contains the ballos.
Therefore, the voters can vote before the voting spots are in operation. As soon as they receive the ballots, they can directly mark the ballots. Then the voters will send their ballots back to the committee. "If the voters wish to directly hand out the ballot paper, it will be received," he said.
The delivery will be carried out ten days before the elections take place and be returned four days after the elections is through. "[The ballot] counting will be set out separately," he added.
Not all overseas voters will certainly send their votes through postal services. The committee will survey voters that cannot go to the voting spots on the designated day. There is only one voting spot in every country, that is in the representative office (Embassy or Consulate General). "The only flexible [country] is Malaysia. The local government permits voting spots to be set up in oil refineries where many Indonesians work," Baharudin said.
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Translated by: Ariyantri E. Tarman
