Highlights Active NIK Of Dead People Potentially Registered Voters, Riau Islands Bawaslu Asks Funeral Service For Cooperation

An illustration of the Bawaslu Building in Central Jakarta. (Bawaslu.go.id)

KEPRI - Head of the Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) of the Riau Islands Province (Kepri), Said Abdullah Dahlawi, highlighted data related to the active population identification number (NIK) belonging to people who have died.

"Of course this has a negative impact on the election process because one of the most important elements in the election is the voter. The active NIK of people who have died has the potential to become voters if they are not immediately deactivated," he said in Tanjungpinang, Riau Islands, Friday, July 22.

He also asked the local government to immediately tidy up the population data which is the foundation for registering voters. In addition, he also asked the local government to improve the data collection system for residents who have died.

"We see that now there is something that needs to be corrected regarding the data of residents who have died because there is a broken bureaucratic system so that the data is not accurate. Of course this has something to do with the election," he said.

The suggestion was conveyed by observing the various difficulties experienced by the regional government and the Riau Islands KPU in registering residents who had died. In a coordination meeting with the Riau Islands KPU, the officer from the election management agency was forced to coordinate with the mosque administrator after receiving information that a resident had died.

Then, the Riau Islands Bawaslu also looked at information related to the active population identification number (NIK) belonging to the deceased.

In addition, the district and city Population Services provide funeral books, which are handed over to the funeral directors.

The policy of holding a funeral book was after it was found that many families did not report any family members who had died.

"In regencies and cities there is a Population Service and a Funeral Service, which should be able to work together to produce data or the identity of a person who has died. Funeral officials can provide data to the relevant office, then report it to the Population Service," he said, according to Antara.

This data should also be given to district and city KPUs, which since May 2021 have been struggling to identify voters conventionally.

"Coordination between institutions to produce accurate voter data is very much needed for election purposes," he added.

Previously, the Head of the Riau Islands Community and Village Empowerment, Population and Civil Registration Office, Misni, stated that they found many NIKs that were still active on behalf of people who had died.

"This (active NIK) is due to the family not reporting a family member who died to the Regency and City Population and Civil Registry Offices," he said.

He could not estimate how many people had died but their NIK was still active. Moreover, in the last two years thousands of Riau Islands residents have died due to Covid-19.

"What we can convey is based on findings in the field. The number is quite significant, it could be hundreds or even thousands of NIKs that are still active, but after verification, it turns out that they belong to people who have died," he said.

He appealed to residents to take care of death certificates at the Regency and City Population and Civil Registry Offices when a family member dies. If the entire grieving family takes care of a death certificate, automatically the officers at the Population and Civil Registration Service deactivate the NIK.

"We continue to socialize so that residents take care of death certificates," he said.

A member of the Riau Islands KPU, Priyo Handoko, said they were tracking about 5,000 names that were included in the continuous voter list after being corrected by the Director General of Population of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

"One of the findings, there are NIK that are still active, while the person has died. But the number is not much," he said.