Ballot paper printing may have to be rescheduled

Ballot paper printing may have to be rescheduled

Moch. N. Kurniawan and Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Less than a month from polling day, the General Elections
Commission (KPU) may be forced to again reschedule the printing
of ballot papers at the request of two major printing companies.

PT Temprina Media Grafika and the State Printing Company
(PNRI), who are responsible for over 15 percent of the 660
million ballot papers between them, said they could finish their
job on March 20 at the earliest, over nine days behind the March
11 deadline.

Earlier on Wednesday, the CV Dwi Rama group also said it would
not be able finish the printing job on time.

KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin said on Friday he was once
glad to hear that ballot paper printing would be completed one
day before the deadline, but unfortunately it was only for the
ballot papers for the election of House of Representatives (DPR)
and the Regional Representative Council (DPD) members.

"This has become very stressful," he said.

He urged the printing companies to get serious about
completing their jobs as the election "is not a matter of
business, but an important moment for the country that will have
ramifications in the future".

The KPU will have an emergency meeting on Saturday to decide
whether or not to reschedule the delivery of the ballots.

On Sunday the commission delayed the last day of ballot paper
printing to March 11, almost three weeks behind the original
schedule. Based on that revised timetable, the KPU expected that
all ballot papers could reach all provincial electoral centers by
March 30 at the latest.

Over 143 million people will go to the polls to elect their
representatives for the DPR, the DPD, the provincial legislature
(DPRD I) and regental/municipal legislature (DPRD II) members on
April 5.

Temprina spokesman Mufti Mubarok blamed the large amount of
red tape involved in obtaining the original templates and
specially sized paper for the delay particularly for ballot
papers with DPRD I and II candidates.

"But ballot papers for the election of House members will
finish by March 10," he said.

He said he had raised the issue with the KPU, but received no
response,

Denny Ramdan, the manager of PT Enka Parahyangan, a member of
PNRI group, concurred with Mufti.

"These (bureaucratic) problems have slowed us down
considerably. Our production cost has also increased because of
it." he said.

Mufti demanded that KPU increase the ballot printing cost by
20 percent of the current price of Rp 275 per ballot paper, while
Denny wanted it increased to Rp 400 per ballot.

Earlier in the day, KPU member Valina Singka Subekti said that
the KPU would allocate some 1,200 tons of ballot papers to be
distributed by the Air Force to West Irian Jaya, Papua, Maluku,
Aceh and Riau Islands.

"We face the most difficulty in transporting the papers there,
so we will not allow private firms to deliver ballot papers to
those areas," she said.

Delivery of ballot papers to the remaining areas will be
handled by four companies, including PT Pos Indonesia, PT Sentra
Indologis Utama, PT Aneka Jasa Putratama, and PT Pandu Siwi
Sentosa.

Meanwhile, the House called on the government to limit the
number of foreign election watchdogs entering the troubled
province of Aceh, fearing that they would misuse their presence
for pro-rebel propaganda.

"The government must issue a regulation to limit the number of
foreign poll monitors. They must not disrupt the elections in
Aceh," deputy House speaker Soetardjo Soerjogoeritno told the
press after a meeting with the House's team assigned to monitor
the "integrated operation" in the province.