Ballot paper printing wraps up, national distribution almost over

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has beaten the June 15 deadline to print 170 million ballot papers for the first round of the presidential election, with the 18 firms contracted to print the forms finishing the job on Wednesday.

In more good news for the commission, distribution companies appointed by the KPU announced they had delivered 95 percent of the ballot papers to almost all of the 349 regencies in the country's 32 provinces. More than 154 million people nationwide are eligible to vote in the July 5 poll.

KPU member Hamid Awaluddin said as of Wednesday, only a few regencies in Riau, Riau Islands and Nias in North Sumatra were yet to receive the papers. "We expect these papers will arrive tomorrow," he said here.

Hamid said with the assistance from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the KPU had also shipped 500,000 ballot papers abroad to overseas polling stations.

The deadline for the ballot paper distribution is June 20.

The commission updated its data on eligible voters after registering more voters from the country's far-flung regions. The additional voters affected the total numbers of ballots printed.

The firms were contracted to print more than 170 million papers bearing the pictures of all presidential and vice presidential candidates, with 10 percent of that number to be held in reserve.

Data from the commission said the last papers to be printed were the 1.6 million ballots allotted for Banten province.

Hamid said the commission had received feedback from 24 provincial General Elections Commissions (KPUD) saying they would need additional papers for the polls.

Among the provinces were Aceh, South Sulawesi, Central Kalimantan, Maluku, North Maluku and Papua, he said.

"We have dispatched a total of 600,000 additional papers to the provinces and have stored another 600,000 in reserve," Hamid said.

Earlier another KPU member, Valina Singka Subekti, said the commission would only spend Rp 9 billion (US$940,000) to distribute the ballots.

However, the KPU declined to disclose the total amount of money needed to print the papers when asked on Wednesday.

The commission required some 660 million ballot papers for the April 5 elections, at a cost to taxpayers of more than Rp 180 billion.

A KPU consultant earlier estimated the printing of a single full-color paper would cost Rp 95, meaning that the commission would spend about Rp 16 billion for the 170 million ballots.

The House of Representatives (DPR) has approved only Rp 3 trillion of the Rp 3.9 trillion budget proposed by the KPU for this year's elections. However, a substantial amount has already been spent on the legislative election and the commission has said it will need an additional Rp 410 billion to cover the presidential elections.