Contingency plans prepared for East Flores polls amid eruption threat

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Home Affairs Minister Bima Arya Sugiarto said his side coordinates with the General Election Commission (KPU), Election Supervisory Body (Bawaslu), and regional leaders forum for anticipatory measures to hold regional election in East Flores.

"The disaster in East Flores has drawn the attention of the central government," he remarked while referring to the eruption of Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki during a working meeting at the Indonesian House of Representatives (DPR RI) in Jakarta on Wednesday.

Sugiarto stated that 29 polling stations (TPS) and 13,782 registered voters were affected by the eruption.

The deputy minister highlighted that the government had ensured that all refugees, both independent and coordinated by the local government, could exercise their right to vote.

"We have instructed the Population and Civil Registration Service to facilitate the residents to cast their vote by issuing the required documents," he remarked.

Such efforts can accommodate residents to vote without a complicated process.

"They only need to submit one statement sheet printed by the local population and civil registration service," he disclosed.

The regional election across Indonesia is scheduled to take place on November 27, 2024.

Earlier, National Police Chief General Listyo Sigit Prabowo also urged residents affected by the eruption to exercise their right to vote at special polling stations.

"We still remind them to vote at special polling stations prepared here," he remarked after visiting the refugees camps in East Flores District, East Nusa Tenggara, on Monday (November 18).

Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki is one of the active volcanoes in NTT, whose volcanic activity has fluctuated throughout the year, with eruptions starting on November 4, forcing 11,533 people to flee, currently lodged in eight refugee shelters.

Apart from the eruption, the Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) also warns of possible rain-induced lava floods from Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki as the rainy season and extreme weather due to La Nina or atmospheric dynamics arrive.