400 million ballots must be distributed by May 10: Rudini

400 million ballots must be distributed by May 10: Rudini

JAKARTA (JP): Four hundred million ballots will have to be
distributed to the provinces by May 10 at the latest, chairman of
the General Elections Commission (KPU) Rudini said on Friday.

"At least nine printing companies licensed by the National
Intelligence Coordinating Agency will start printing on Tuesday,"
Rudini, a retired general, said.

Four hundred million ballots for the three electoral levels
will be needed for the June 7 general election, or roughly 133
million ballots each for the central, provincial and regency
electoral levels.

Special security methods will be employed in printing the
ballots to avoid counterfeiting, Rudini added.

The commission, which includes representatives of the 48
political parties contesting the general election, agreed on such
details as party symbols to be used on the ballots and the size
of ballot sheets, 30 centimeters by 44 centimeters.

KPU secretary-general Amur Muchasim said two weeks before the
June 7 poll, ballots must be received by District Polling
Committees. Three days before the poll, ballots must reach
Subdistrict Polling Committees.

"We have coordinated the supervision of the printing of the
ballots and their distribution with the police," Amur added.

As of Friday, the commission had moved closer to receiving the
population data needed to determine the allocation of legislative
seats.

The Ministry of Home Affairs stated the country's population
was 209,389,000. The KPU earlier had used data from the 1997
election in which the population was given as 209 million.

However, the commission still cannot complete its calculations
to determine the number of legislative members from each regency.

Besides awaiting further data from the ministry, there were
reports of population data which differed from the data received
from the ministry.

A representative of Yogyakarta's Provincial Elections
Committee, Alia Audah, came to the KPU office on Friday to report
that in the 1997 election Yogyakarta's population was 3,023,242,
higher than had been reported for that poll.

Data for the 1997 election was based on 1995 official
statistics.

Alia said current data from the ministry stated Yogyakarta's
population was 2,908,000.

"We want this to be rechecked because it will determine the
allocation of legislative seats at the provincial level," he
said.

The elections law stipulates that a province with a population
below three million is entitled to 45 provincial legislative
seats, while a province with a population between three million
and five million is entitled to 55 seats.

Rudini said the matter would have to be resolved by Monday so
the KPU could move on to other tasks.

As for the allocation of legislative seats for East Timor,
Rudini said the KPU had sent a letter to the President for the
government's stance on the issue.

According to the elections law, East Timor is entitled to 13
legislative seats in the House of Representative, or one each for
each of its 13 regencies. An official at the Ministry of Home
Affairs, Ryaas Rasyid, earlier said it was up to the KPU to
decide whether East Timor would be allocated legislative seats
according to the elections law. In the past, East Timor was
allocated four seats because of its relatively small population
of some 800,000.

Meanwhile, Antara reported the establishment on Thursday of
the New York branch of Indonesia's Overseas Elections Committee
supervising the poll in 15 states in the United States.
Committees also are planned for Washington D.C., Chicago,
Houston, Los Angeles and San Francisco.

A similar committee was established in Berlin, Germany, on
Thursday, led by Quatly Abdulkadir Salim, chairman of the Justice
Party in Germany.

Separately in Jakarta, a group comprising political parties
which failed to be declared eligible to contest this year's polls
was established. The group, called the Movement to Return
People's Sovereignty, includes military observer Salim Said, law
expert Sri Soemantri and former chairman of the National Private
Banks Association I Nyoman Moena. (edt)