Ni Komang Erviani ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Thu, 04/09/2009 7:48 PM  |  Election 2009

A widespread mix-up of ballots has marred the legislative elections Thursday in Bali, as officials at polling stations in Denpasar municipality and seven other regencies experienced an early morning shock after finding out the ballots at their stations were actually designated for other constituencies.

Klungkung is the only regency that did not report such an incident.

“We haven’t received any report [of a mix-up] from Klungkung  yet. The mix-up occurred at eight out of nine election regions in the island,” Bali General Elections Commission (KPUD) head Lanang Perbawa Sukawati said Thursday afternoon. Read the rest of this entry »

Ni Komang Erviani ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Wed, 04/08/2009 3:48 PM  |  Bali

Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika has urged the central government to allocate the province a larger portion of the national tourism revenue since it contributed more than 30 percent of the total income.

Read the rest of this entry »

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Ni Komang Erviani ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Tue, 04/07/2009 2:29 PM  |  Bali

The number of people who will abstain from voting in the 2009 general elections will increase to 20 percent of total eligible voters, up more than five percent from 14.5 percent of non-voters in the 2004 elections, several political analysts have said.

Nyoman Subanda, dean of political science at the National Education University in Denpasar, believes that that the percentage of non-voters will be even higher than 20 percent.

“During the recent elections for governor, 24.5 percent of voters did not give their voices. In my opinion, such a condition will occur in the coming legislative election.”

Subanda identified a number of reasons that might prevent people from going to the voting booths including cultural, technical and logistical.

On Thursday (voting day), Balinese Hindus will observe one of the most sacred events, Bethara Turun Kabeh (The Gods’ Visit on Earth), which takes place on the tenth full moon of the Balinese lunar calendar at the Besakih Mother Temple in Karangasem regency.

“Technically, many obstacles have occurred including unregistered voters, people being unable to leave workplaces and a lock of information on how to vote,” he said.

Most ineligible voters will be prevented because of technical and administrative reasons. “In Bali, people rarely find that they become non-voters because of their ideological or political grounds. ”

Subanda also said that many people would not vote because they do not know who the right candidates are. He said that there are many candidates running for legislative seats, but that people do not have any idea about their personalities, achievements or their programs.

Anak Agung Gde Oka Wisnumurti, former chairman of the Bali General Elections Commission, is of the same opinion and said that technical issues and administrative problems could severely affect the number of non-voters on the island.

Bali has seen an increasing trend of vote absenteeism. The rate in the 2004 legislative elections was 14.5 percent, rising to 18.5 percent in the 2004 presidential election. The recent gubernatorial election saw an abstention rate of 24.5 percent.

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Ni Komang Erviani ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Fri, 04/03/2009 2:19 PM  |  Bali

In a move praised by Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika, Bali Police have officially named Made Sujana, a tax collector at the Bali Revenue Agency, as a suspect in a graft case.

Spokesman for the Bali Police Sr. Comr. Gde Sugianyar said Thursday that the suspect was arrested on March 25.

Made is being detained at the Bali Police detention facility.

“He has confessed to forging Underground Water Springs (ABT) tax invoices sent to companies utilizing underground water springs,” Sugianyar said.

“The suspect didn’t send the tax payments to the revenue agency.”

Detectives working on the case believe that Sujana has embezzled up to Rp 820 million (US$71,000) of tax payer’s money.

If found guilty Sujana faces a sentence of up to five years imprisonment.

The case was uncovered after the Bali provincial administration conducted an inspection of revenue intake from underground water and found that the suspect had forged tax invoices between January and December 2008.

Earlier on Wednesday Bali Governor Made Mangku Pastika said that he expected the police to investigate the case thoroughly.

“I’m asking Bali Police to further investigate to find any other perpetrators possibly related to the case,” Pastika said.

“How humiliating.a hotel paid Rp 10 million for underground water but the collecting officer saved it for himself and only left Rp 1 million for the office.”

“That is why we received just Rp 10 billion in underground water taxes in 2008 while we could have actually collected up to Rp 50 billion.”