KPU delays ballot paper printing for another week<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The printing of 600 million ballot papers has been delayed for
\nanother week, the General Elections Commission (KPU) said on
\nTuesday.<\/p>\n
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said ballot paper printing
\nwould not start until Feb. 15 as print negatives would not be
\nready until Feb. 12. It would then take up to two days to final-
\ncheck the printing process he said.<\/p>\n
Previously, the KPU said it would start printing the ballot
\npapers on Feb. 5 but it rescheduled the date to Feb. 8 because it
\nhad not finished verifying the legislative candidates.<\/p>\n
Ramlan assured the public printing would be completed within
\n20 days to avoid a domino effect of more delays in the election
\nprocess.<\/p>\n
Ballot papers and boxes are scheduled to reach all 560,000
\npolling stations 10 days before the start of the April 5 general
\nelections.<\/p>\n
The KPU has selected 18 of the 20 firms that will print the
\nballot papers. However, it has yet to determine the area of
\ncoverage of each winning bidder.<\/p>\n
Among the winners are Temprina Media Grafika, Genta
\nSinggalang, State Printing Company (PNRI), and state-owned
\nsecurities paper and bank note printing company (Peruri).<\/p>\n
Ramlan said the KPU might divide the country into 10 printing
\nareas centered in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surakarta,
\nSurabaya, Makassar, Medan, Padang and Palembang.<\/p>\n
Film-negatives were currently being processed by PNRI and
\nGrafitec. The two companies had promised to finish the negatives
\nfor House of Representatives legislative candidates and Regional
\nRepresentatives candidates by Friday, Ramlan said.<\/p>\n
The negatives for candidates of provincial and regental
\nlegislatures would be ready by Feb. 16, Ramlan said.<\/p>\n
Separately, KPU deputy secretary general Sussongko Suhardjo
\nsaid ballot box producer Survindo Indah Prestasi had requested
\nits production target be cut to make only 601,000 of the 877,000
\nboxes it was contracted to produce.<\/p>\n
The KPU received on Tuesday a letter dated Jan. 28 from the
\ncompany, formally asking for the commission's leniency.<\/p>\n
Sussongko said the KPU would grant to the request and give the
\nremaining 276,000 boxes to CV Almas, which finished third in the
\ntender.<\/p>\n
A company executive connected to the process said Pura
\nBarutama, the firm contracted to produce the voter registration
\ncards, and another firm, Bukaka, were offering Almas money to
\nhelp take over production from Survindo.<\/p>\n
Ferry Alfiand, of PT Cipta Kreasi Packindo, one of 11
\nfactories subcontracted by Survindo, confirmed all factories
\nwould leave Survindo and cooperate with Pura and Almas to produce
\nthe remaining ballot boxes.<\/p>\n
Survindo was initially named the sole winner of the tender to
\nmake all of the 2.19 million boxes required for the elections.<\/p>\n
It had spent Rp 36.4 billion to buy enough raw materials to
\nproduce 575,000 boxes but had only managed to produce 430,000,
\nFerry said.<\/p>\n
Almas has been given 10 percent of the total number of ballot
\nboxes needed for the elections, while second-ranked Tjakrindo Mas
\nhas been awarded the contract to produce 50 percent of the boxes.<\/p>\n
Tjakrindo representative Mochtar B.U. said his company had
\ncompleted 877,000 ballot boxes and KPU had disbursed the first
\ndown-payment amounting to Rp 31 billion to his company.<\/p>",
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