Poll commission misses deadline, blames others
Moch. N. Kurniawan and Ahmad Junaidi, Jakarta
The General Elections Commission (KPU) admitted on Tuesday that it would not be able to announce the final results of the April 5 election on schedule due to delays in delivery from its Regional Elections Commissions (KPUDs) in far-flung provinces.
"We can not announce the final results on Wednesday as planned, but we still expect to do it within the 30 days allowed under the general election law," KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said.
KPU had scheduled to announce the final results of manual vote counting on April 28, but by Tuesday April 27 it had completed counting in less than half of the 69 electoral districts nationwide.
Under Election Law No. 12/2003, the KPU has to publish the results within 30 days of the legislative election. This means KPU still has until May 4 to do so.
According to Ramlan, KPUDs had not delivered their ballot papers to Jakarta due to various problems including protests from political parties and the heavy task of counting votes for four legislative bodies simultaneously.
"However, we have sent a memo to all regental/municipal KPUDs to hand over their ballots to us by April 30 at the latest. If they can't do it, we will go pick them up ourselves," he said.
With the delayed announcement, the KPU must revise its Instruction No. 636/2003 on the legislative election timetable, Ramlan said.
According to him, the KPU must also prepare to revise its instruction on the presidential election timetable.
The results will determine the seat allocation in the House of Representatives (DPR) and political parties eligible for the July 5 election.
Only parties or coalitions getting 3 percent of the seats in the House or 5 percent of the popular vote may field candidates in the presidential election on July 5.
As of 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, 394 of 440 regental and municipal KPUDs had delivered their ballot counting results to the KPU.
Those 440 regencies/municipalities were grouped into 69 electoral districts for the election of members of the House, Regional Consultative Assembly (DPR), provincial legislatures and regental/municipal legislatures.
The commission has completed the tabulation of votes in 26 electoral districts, including five on Tuesday.
The five electoral districts finished on Tuesday were West Java I, II, III, Central Java IV and South Kalimantan.
Separately, House Commission II deputy chairman Ferry Mursidan Baldan said that he understood the difficulties faced in the manual ballot counting.
"However, we still expect KPU to meet the deadline of May 4 as stipulated in the general election law," he told reporters after visiting KPU's office on Tuesday.
KPU member Anas Urbaningrum and chairman of the presidential nomination team, claimed that if they had to modify the timetable for presidential election, it would not reduce the registration period for presidential candidates and the electoral campaign.
"We may reduce the time allotted to provide election materials," he said.