Highlighting The Geographical Conditions Of The Riau Islands, KPU Wanti-wanti Village Apparatus Easy Access Voters To TPS During The 2024 General Election

The logistics distribution of the 2019 Election uses porter services to two remote villages at the foot of the Meratus Mountains, Hulu Sungai Tengah, South Kalimantan. (Between-Bayu Pratama S)

The simultaneous General Election (Pemilu) will still be held in 2024, but various aspects are highlighted so that there are no obstacles when held. One of them is access to polling stations (TPS) in areas with island geogravities.

Members of the General Election Commission (KPU) of Bintan Regency, Haris Daulay, asked village officials to make it easier for voters who live on small islands in the Riau Islands (Kepri) to give voting rights to polling stations in the 2024 General Election.

"Village administrators can invite their citizens to exercise voting rights. They can use one boat to go together to TPS on another island," said Haris in Bintan, Riau Islands, Monday, January 30, as reported by Antara.

Haris explained, in the 2019 election, a number of voters on certain islands in Riau Islands were known not to exercise their voting rights because they were reluctant to go to polling stations on other islands.

However, in the 2020 Bintan Pilkada, he stated that the number of voter participation increased in the islands because election organizers involved village officials to invite voters to exercise their voting rights.

He said the Bintan KPU did not build TPS on islands with a population of tens of people. The construction of polling stations on islands with a small number of voters, according to him, was ineffective.

Each TPS requires a number of officers to hold elections, he said, such as polling groups, Linmas officers, election supervisors, and election participant witnesses.

"We are worried that if it is forced to build TPS on islands with a population of only tens of people, no one meets the requirements or no residents are willing to become election organizers at the TPS," he explained.

According to him, the construction of polling stations on islands needs to pay attention to geographical and psychological conditions of voters. The determination of polling stations also pays attention to the accessibility of voters so that voters have no trouble using voting rights.

"Of course the TPS that was built is close to the residence of voters even though it is different from the island," he added.

Haris also revealed that there were a number of residents whose addresses did not match the addresses of the population data. He gave an example that there were residents whose addresses were based on their ID cards living on Telang Besar Island, but in reality he already lived in Kijang and other islands.

The village management in the area also suggested that the TPS be built on Telang Kecil Island because the population is quite busy.

"In Tambelan District, there are also many islands with relatively few population. We hope that village officials encourage voters to exercise their voting rights at the designated polling stations," said Haris.

Based on data from the Bintan Regency Government, the number of islands in the area reaches 272 large and small islands spread across the South China Sea, of which 39 are already inhabited.

The Bintan KPU has carried out a TPS mapping based on KPU Regulation Number 7 of 2022 Article 15 paragraph 3. One TPS, based on the PKPU, a maximum of 300 voters.

The TPS mapping refers to five principles, namely not combining sub-districts and villages, facilitating voters to polling stations, not separating voters in one family at different polling stations, local geographical aspects, and distance and travel time to polling stations by taking into account the grace period. voting.