More than half of ballot papers printed so far<\/p>\n
M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The logistical woes that afflicted the legislative elections seem
\nunlikely to affect the July 5 presidential polls as three weeks
\nbefore polling day the firms appointed by the General Elections
\nCommission (KPU) have managed to print and to distribute a large
\npercentage of the ballot papers.<\/p>\n
Data from the KPU made available to The Jakarta Post on Friday
\nshowed that nine of the 18 firms contracted to print the ballot
\npapers had completed the printing of 74.3 million papers or
\nalmost 50 percent of the total.<\/p>\n
Distribution companies appointed by the KPU are delivering the
\npapers to the country's provinces, with far-flung regions
\nreceiving priority.<\/p>\n
KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said that the first batches of
\npapers had now reached 28 of the country's 32 provinces. \"Some
\nhave already even arrived at the regency level,\" he told
\nreporters here.<\/p>\n
Mulyana said that ballot paper distribution would be unlikely
\nto face serious problems, and he was optimistic that the
\ncommission could beat the June 25 deadline for the necessary full
\nconsignments of ballot papers to have arrived in all 440
\nregencies.<\/p>\n
\"I expect that the printing of all ballot papers will have
\nbeen completed by June 15 and their distribution to have been
\nwrapped up by June 20,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The commission has appointed 19 firms to print over 160
\nmillion ballot papers bearing the pictures of all the
\npresidential and vice presidential candidates.<\/p>\n
Recently, the KPU appointed three more firms to print the
\nballot papers besides the 15 firms that had already been awarded
\ncontracts. The new firms are PT Intermasa, PT Induk Sarana and CV
\nRizky Grafis.<\/p>\n
They have been given contracts to print a total of 17,753,503
\npapers.<\/p>\n
Official printing began on May 28 and each of the printers was
\ngiven 10 days to complete the work, including packaging.<\/p>\n
The commission has registered a total of 153,357,307 million
\neligible voters for the presidential election, up from the
\n147,106 million registered for the legislative elections.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives (DPR) has approved only Rp 3
\ntrillion of the Rp 3.9 trillion election budget proposed by the
\nKPU. In addition, a substantial amount was spent on the
\nlegislative elections, with the result that the commission says
\nit will now need additional funding of Rp 410 billion for the
\npresidential election.<\/p>\n
Mulyana said in order cope with the funding shortage, election
\ncommissions at all levels had been ordered to reduce their
\nexpenditure.<\/p>\n
\"The presidential election will be much simpler than the
\nlegislative elections. Therefore, it will be possible to trim
\nback unnecessary expenses,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/more-than-half-of-ballot-papers-printed-so-far-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}