Ballot counting runs at snail's pace

Ballot counting runs at snail's pace

JAKARTA (JP): A telecommunication traffic glut and unskilled
elections workers have been blamed for the slow-coming of ballot
counting reports across the country. At least one observer has
aired concern the tardiness may invite vote-rigging.

General Election Commission (KPU) chairman Rudini said the
lateness was "the consequence of slow but accurate reporting of
ballot counting" in regions. He described how voting went in a
democratic manner in many areas but ballot counting was painfully
slow because of poll workers' poor skills.

"Most (of the poll workers) in polling places and villages
were street vendors, pedicab drivers, farmers and ojek motorcycle
taxi drivers with no experience and skills in organizing
elections," he said.

The commission originally planned to gather and announce at
least 60 percent of the votes in 12 hours after voting ended at 2
p.m. Monday. As of 8.15 p.m. Tuesday, less than one percent of
the votes were counted.

Rudini, a former home affairs minister, insisted against
comparing the situation with the past six elections under
Soeharto's New Order regime where the winner -- in each case
Golkar -- was announced even before ballot counting was
completed.

Separately, observer Jeffrey Winters from the Northwestern
University in Chicago, said the slow process opened loopholes for
vote-rigging, chiding the election officials' failure to come up
with a satisfactory explanation.

"Is something else going on? The danger is, will this delay
continue? Because ... the longer the delay is between the voting
and the announcement, the greater chance there is (for parties)
to distort results," he said.

Rudini said, however, rigorous procedures had been put into
place to guard against vote-riggings.

In Bandung, experts said slow reporting from local polling
places to election committees at regencies, provincial capitals
and Jakarta, might have been caused by a telecommunication
"bottleneck", as thousands of poll workers across the country
tried to phone in results.

Sudjana Sapi'ie, the director of Bandung-based Rector's Forum
poll watch, said many poll watchdog activists were able to report
in on Tuesday morning only. He said his organization, which
launched the Parallel Vote Tabulation (PVT) for comparison of
official vote counting, also encountered problems because the
main telecommunication link to the processing center in Jakarta
was not functioning.

The activists originally only needed to send reports by phone
and facsimile but because of the telecommunication glut and
transmission errors, the plan fell through. A back-up system,
however, was being installed.

Sudjana expected that by today, some 70 percent of the votes
taken from a sample of 8,900 polling places in various provinces
would be counted and announced through the forum's website
http://forumrektor.itb.ac.id. By Thursday, all votes will be
expected to have been counted.

The forum planned to submit the result of ballot counting for
comparison to the election commission.

Glitches

Meanwhile, in the Maluku capital of Ambon, late reporting of
ballot counting from polling places was attributed to the
insistence of the Provincial Elections Committee that poll
workers submit written reports.

Lutfi Sanaki, the committee head, said in past elections,
workers could report only by short single band (SSB) radios
available in villages. "Now reports have to be in writing and
submitted by fax, and in detail. This is so everything is
accountable," Lutfi said.

The more rigorous procedures put extra burden on poll workers.
In Bogor, West Java, polling place officials worked until the wee
hours of Tuesday to finish checking and counting ballots.

Jamaluddin, one of the workers in Sukadamai village, described
how he has been working non-stop from the day before election
day, up to Tuesday morning, without almost any refreshments. "No
drinking water, and much less snacks," he said.

He also complained how lengthy the ballot counting process had
been. Mistakes in calculation or tabulation often forced the
workers to repeat the process from the start.

Abdul Rahman, one of the witnesses at a polling place, said
exhaustion often caused them to make mistakes which meant a
repeat of the process.

Workers from another polling place, in Pasir Mulya, however,
said they did not mind the long hours and tedious work because
residents provided them with enough refreshments.

In Medan, North Sumatra, at Tuesday afternoon, many complained
of slow reporting from regencies where workers continued ballot
counting until Tuesday morning.

Also in West Java, Provincial Elections Committee in Bandung
had received reports from 10 regencies by Tuesday afternoon
reports. The other 16 had not even contacted the committee.

Similar complaints were voiced in Pekanbaru, the capital of
Riau, but the situation was blamed on poor transportation.
(24/39/43/44/48/rms/swe)