There are almost nine million Indonesians living abroad, a key constituency for the contenders Widodo and Subianto.
Thousands of migrant workers from Indonesia will head to Hong Kong’s Victoria Park to cast their vote for the next Indonesian president this Sunday.
More than 190 million registered voters go to poll in Indonesia on April 17 but overseas voters have been given from April 7 to April 14 to cast their ballot.
There are an estimated nine million Indonesians living and working abroad, a community that is larger than the population of 25 of Indonesia’s 34 provinces.
The figure is also bigger than incumbent Joko Widodo’s margin of victory when he was first elected in 2014.
Wita, a domestic worker from Central Java who has lived in Hong Kong for nearly seven years, plans to vote for Widodo, popularly known as Jokowi.
“Jokowi spoke out up when Erwiana was tortured,” Wita told Al Jazeera, referring to domestic worker Erwiana Sulistyaningsih who was tortured by her Hong Kong employer in 2014 that sparked an international outcry. “He cares about us.”
A survey of 541 overseas Indonesians carried out by the Indonesian Diaspora Network between November 2018 and January 2019 revealed that 85 percent of them were planning to vote.
“Both campaign teams will spend more logistics and campaign effort in countries such as Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Netherlands and Singapore where a significant majority of the voters live,” said Ericssen Wen, an independent political analyst in Singapore.
“The candidates treat Indonesian voters in Malaysia seriously. It is not surprising as 27 percent of Indonesia’s overseas voters are living in Malaysia.”
Despite that, securing expatriate Indonesians’ democratic rights is not easy because a large percentage are working without proper documentation or living in remote regions far from government facilities.
Data from the Elections Commission shows only two million have registered to vote.
Although there are provisions under Indonesian election law that allow unregistered migrants to vote in person, NGOs do not expect many to take advantage.
Some even say the government is not doing enough to ensure all overseas Indonesians can vote.
“As many as seven million migrant workers are [in danger of] losing their political rights,” said Hariyanto, chairperson of the Indonesian Migrant Workers Union (Serikat Buruh Migrant Indonesia).
“We compel the government to ensure that all migrant workers can use their vote.”
The steep turnover of workers – hundreds of thousands either leave or return to Indonesia each year – also makes it a challenge to ensure that all migrant workers are accounted for.
As Malaysia has the highest number of Indonesian migrant workers, authorities plan to open polling stations in smaller cities across the peninsula and in Borneo where many Indonesians live. There is also the option to vote by post or mobile.
Still, it is not easy to cast a vote as some workers rarely have time off or work on remote plantations.
“Domestic workers, who often work in an estate, find it difficult to travel and vote,” said Nasrikah with Serantau Malaysia, a non-profit that works with Indonesian migrant workers.
For undocumented workers, there’s another concern.
“Nobody can guarantee their security, as the Malaysian government can carry out raids anywhere at anytime,” added Nasrikah.
