Indonesians cast early votes in presidential election

Fulfilling a duty: Indonesians casting their vote at the Indonesia Consulate-General in Penang. - Bernama

KUALA LUMPUR: More Indonesians from among the country’s 300,000 early voters in Malaysia have come out to cast their vote in their presidential election.

After early voting in Kuala Lumpur and Johor on Saturday, it was the turn of Indone­­sians working and living in Sarawak, Sabah and Penang to go to the polls yesterday.

Indonesian Ambassador to Malaysia Herman Prayitno said there were 420,643 eligible vo­ters in Malaysia.

Indonesian Consul-General Djoko Hardjanto and his wife Rosa Triana were among those who cast their votes as soon as the polling station in Kuching opened at 9am.

The country’s election secretariat chief Fathan Sutrisno said about 30% of the 1,500 voters in Kuching took part in the early voting held at the Indonesian Consulate-General.

He said 103,955 Indonesian voters in the state had also voted through the drop box system at 246 factories and plantations between June 30 and July 3.

Casting her vote in Tawau, housewife Noraini Muhammad Saing, 43, said she hoped to see Indonesia getting more prosperous and its bilateral ties with Malaysia strengthened.

Indonesian consul in Tawau Muhammad Soleh said several buses were sent to ferry Indonesian workers from their plantations.

About 160,000 Indonesians in Sabah, inclu­ding 11,200 in Kota Kinabalu and 56,000 in Tawau, Semporna and Lahad Datu, took part in the early polls.

Indonesian acting consul-general in Kota Kinabalu M. Fauzi Eko Nugroho said the rest of the voters had exercised their right through the drop box system and polling counters at 47 plantations in Sabah.

“An Indonesian Election Commission car will be going round to collect ballots in Penampang, Inanam, Papar and Tuaran as well as Tawau,” he said.

Thousands of Indonesians in the northern region of the peninsula made a beeline for the Indonesian Consulate-General in Jalan Burmah, George Town, for the polls which took place from 9.10am until 7pm.

The presidental polls will be held on Wed­nesday between Joko Widodo and his running mate Jusuf Kalla against Prabowo Subianto and Hatta Rajasa. — Bernama