KPU's new ballot design tough for the blind: Watchdog NGO

By Agnes Winarti
Source : The Jakarta Post

The 2009 ballot paper design and its marking technique proposed by the General Elections Commission (KPU) may pose difficulties for visually impaired voters, said a civic election monitoring group Monday.

"Blind voters are more familiar with punching a hole in a ballot than with putting a check mark in a box," said Yuristinus Oloan of the Forum of Citizens Concerned about the Indonesian Legislature (Formappi) during a press conference Monday.

The watchdog NGO is a member of the working group monitoring elections preparation and implementation.

The working group also consists of Jakarta Legal Aid Foundation (LBH Jakarta), People's Voter Education Network (JPPR) and Consortium for National Legal Reform (KRHN).

As reported in August, the KPU has proposed a new marking technique for Indonesian ballots: The voter should place a check mark in a box next to his or her choice instead of perforating the paper. A final decision on ballot design is pending.

The elections are scheduled to be held in April.

"A check mark is not a universally known voting mark -- especially for those with visual impairments since birth -- but perforating is," Ariani, chair of the Center for Election Access for Disabled Voters (Penca) told The Jakarta Post on Monday.

Penca was established in 2002 to advocate for disabled voters in the 2004 election. Ariani cited World Health Organization data which estimated disabled people make of 10 percent of the country's total population.

"About 60 percent of those disabled people are registered voters," said Ariani, adding about 20 percent of that group were blind, roughly 2.9 million voters. She said most registered disabled voters were in Jakarta because they moved to the better care centers in the capital from around the country.

"The blind need additional special assistance, different from the general disabled voter pool, to be able to participate in the general election," she said.

The working group urged the KPU to stick to the old way of voting by perforating the paper ballot. It also proposed a ballot design which would provide a balanced format for both political party symbols and candidate names for the legislative councils.

"The 2009 elections, as stipulated in the 2008 elections law, aims to give voters the option of selecting individual candidates by name instead of just choosing the political party," said Jeirry Sumampow from JPPR.

Even for voters without disabilities, Hermawanto of LBH Jakarta said, marking a check opened the way for more voting errors which could render ballots invalid, compared with the perforating method.

"It's time for the KPU to take a final decision on the ballot design issue so they can start familiarizing voters with the chosen format," added Yulianto of the KRHN.