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)