KPU launches computerized vote counting<\/p>\n
M. Taufiqurrahman
\nThe Jakarta Post\/Jakarta<\/p>\n
A new-and-improved computerized vote counting system was ready
\nfor the presidential election and would help to reduce vote-
\nrigging in the poll, the General Elections Commission (KPU)
\nannounced on Sunday.<\/p>\n
As in the legislative election and the first round of the
\npresidential election, the computerized vote counting will
\nprovide the public with updates from polling stations nationwide.<\/p>\n
KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin said although the
\ncomputerized vote counting was not official, it would provide a
\nuseful comparison to the results of the manual vote-counting.<\/p>\n
\"The manual aggregation of the votes will take a long time to
\ncomplete, and the computerized system will help voters learn
\nabout the results early on,\" Nazaruddin said at the launch of the
\nsystem here.<\/p>\n
The incumbent, President Megawati Soekarnoputri, and her
\nchallenger, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, are contesting the
\ncountry's first-ever direct presidential election.<\/p>\n
As part of efforts to prevent vote-rigging, both camps have
\npledged to deploy one million observers each to over 580,000
\npoll stations across the country.<\/p>\n
Nazaruddin said the transparent system meant voters would
\nknow if there was a wide discrepancy between the computerized and
\nthe manual vote counts.<\/p>\n
He said the computerized count could also serve to diffuse
\ntensions during the post-election period, when voters were
\nanxious to know about the election results.<\/p>\n
KPU head of computerized vote counting Chusnul Mar'iyah said
\ndata from polling stations would start to stream into the KPU
\ndata center, set up at the Borobudur Hotel, Central Jakarta, on
\nMonday afternoon.<\/p>\n
The data center, which will feed information about the count
\nto the media, will operate until Sept. 25.<\/p>\n
The computerized vote counting requires over 12,000 data entry
\noperators who will enter data provided by subdistrict election
\nofficials after it is collected from polling stations.<\/p>\n
The data should reach the KPU at a quicker pace than in
\nprevious polls, as it will directly feed into the data center,
\nby-passing the commission's now-redundant bureaucracy.<\/p>\n
The KPU has allotted Rp 9 billion (US$1 million) to
\naccommodate the data entry staff during the tabulation process.<\/p>\n
Chusnul said earlier the latest system would be more resistant
\nto possible attacks from hackers, who had broken into the data in
\nprevious elections.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives (DPR) budgetary committee has
\nrejected the Rp 40 billion budget for the computerized vote
\ncounting in the runoff and demanded an audit of the system.<\/p>\n
The committee suspected there had been mark-ups in the price
\nof the system's hardware.<\/p>",
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