Poll officials dazed by sluggish data entry<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
It will become more and more difficult for the General
\nElections Commission (KPU) to continue making defensive
\nstatements about the chaotic logistical distribution and the
\nunpreparedness of KPU's lowest-ranking officials working at
\npolling stations.<\/p>\n
The sending of punched ballot papers from polling stations to
\ndistrict poll committees proceeded very slowly on Tuesday,
\nsparking fears that the poll organizer (KPU) would not be able to
\ndeclare the final outcome of vote tally on April 26.<\/p>\n
The sluggish forwarding was variously attributed to the lack
\nof skill of poll committees, misplacement of ballot papers and
\ngeographical complications.<\/p>\n
In the West Java capital Bandung, many committee members in
\npolling stations did not have enough know-how to input election
\ndata into a voting summary document, which slowed down the
\nprocess of sending election data from polling stations to
\ndistrict poll committees.<\/p>\n
"Besides the lack of knowledge, poll committee (PPS) members
\nwere also exhausted, as they had worked nonstop until Tuesday
\nmorning," said Rohman Priatna, the chairman of Coblong district
\nelection committee.<\/p>\n
He continued that, due to the human resources problem, only
\n149 of 354 polling stations in his district had already sent by
\nTuesday the punched ballot papers along with the summary
\ndocuments to the district election committee. The summary
\ndocuments provided a resume of the total votes collected by each
\npolitical party and candidates for the Regional Representatives
\nCouncil (DPD).<\/p>\n
According to guidance from the General Elections Commission
\n(KPU), all the documents from polling stations had to be returned
\nto district poll committees by late Monday. The items have to
\nreach the central KPU by April 14.<\/p>\n
Andri Kantaprawira, a member of the Bandung KPUD, confirmed
\nthe hiccups, but quickly added that the KPUD had seven days to go
\nbefore it sent all ballot papers and summary documents to the
\ncentral KPU in Jakarta.<\/p>\n
A similar problem could also be found in Papua province and
\nthe East Java town of Jember.<\/p>\n
In Central Java, many ballot papers had been interchanged
\nbetween one area and another, so the elections in some places
\nthere had to be rerun. That certainly delayed the sending of
\npunched ballot papers from polling stations there to district
\nelection committees, as happened in several towns in Central
\nJava, including Surakarta, Boyolali and Sragen.<\/p>\n
Rerun elections also had to be held in several polling
\nstations on Tuesday in Surabaya for similar reasons.<\/p>\n
In the North Sumatra capital, Medan, some 50 percent of 269
\ncomputers placed in regental or municipal KPUDs and district
\nelection committees in the province were damaged because the
\ncomputers had been used by poll staffers to play computer games.<\/p>\n
In the East Nusa Tenggara provincial capital, Kupang, only
\nthree of 16 regental\/municipal KPUDs had sent summary data to
\nEast Nusa Tenggara provincial KPUD by Tuesday night. Robinson
\nRatu Koreh, the chairman of East Nusa Tenggara KPUD, said that
\nthe slow delivery of punched ballot papers and voting summaries
\nwas caused by geographical problem.<\/p>\n
"There are so many polling stations here located in remote
\nareas, it takes time for the documents to reach district election
\ncommittees and regental and provincial KPUDs," he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/poll-officials-dazed-by-sluggish-data-entry-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
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