Ballot counting in Jakarta near completion: Officials

Eva C. Komandjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Despite sluggish computerized ballot counting at the Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD), officials were confident that all work would be completed by late Monday, as about 93 percent of ballots had been counted as of 8 p.m. on Monday.

According to KPUD chairman Mohamad Taufik, less than 6 million of the 6.4 million registered voters were eligible to vote in the April 5 legislative election due to a number of mistakes that forced the commission to withdraw voter cards.

Taufik also said that the manual ballot counting results were ready at subdistrict level and expected they would reach district level on Tuesday.

"It will probably take a day to process at the district level, so we expect that we can finish manual counting by Thursday at the latest," he told The Jakarta Post.

Slow counting at the KPUD office has widened the differences in the tally result compared with the data collected by the General Elections Commissions (KPU), which receives the vote count directly from district level offices nationwide.

Although both results place the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS) and the Democratic Party respectively first and second for the House of Representatives (DPR) and Jakarta City Council (DPRD), the difference in the results from the KPU and KPUD indicated a discrepancy of approximately 40,000 votes.

As of 8 p.m. on Monday, KPU data showed that the PKS won 892,677 votes for the DPRD, whereas KPUD data showed 848,961 votes.

Similar differences in the number of votes were also found in the remaining parties' total votes.

Taufik claimed he was not aware of the discrepancy between KPU and KPUD data.

"I didn't know that the data varies. I don't understand information technology much, but I'm sure the result will be exactly the same as the KPU's after the ballot counting is finished," he said.

Meanwhile, according to KPU data, Mooryati Soedibyo, the owner of a famous local cosmetic company, still maintained her position in first place, with 435,269 votes, for one of the four seats at the newly created Regional Representatives Council (DPD).

Former minister Sarwono Kusumaatmajda remained in second place with 425,227 votes.

Radio personality Biem Triani Benyamin held third place with 335,601 votes while Marwan Batubara secured fourth, the last seat on the council, with 294,646 votes.

For DPR seats, the PKS was still first in Jakarta, with 982,691 votes, followed by the Democratic Party, with 905,812 votes. The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) was in third place with 580,115 votes, well behind the other two.