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)