Ballot supplies ready, voters not

Ballot supplies ready, voters not

Muninggar Sri Saraswati, Jakarta

A week ahead of the July 5 presidential election, the General Elections Commission (KPU) announced that it had completed the distribution of polling supplies to districts, but found that not all would-be voters knew how to vote correctly.

"Polling supplies, which include ballot papers, seals, list of candidates, several kinds of forms and calculators, have arrived at District Polling Committees (PPK), including the overseas committees," KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said on Wednesday.

The KPU has printed and distributed more than 170 million ballot papers for the unprecedented direct presidential election.

Most polling material packages have been received by Subdistrict Polling Committees (PPSs), but they had yet to arrive at some PPSs in remote areas due to security concerns.

"In some remote areas, the PPSs do not have offices where they can store the supplies. If we deliver them too soon, the risk of tampering with the ballot papers would be high," Ramlan said, adding that they would be sent within the next three days.

In response to complaints from some PPK officials who said they had not received a complete set, Ramlan said the KPU had informed them that it had only sent a 5 percent extra supply to each committee "to anticipate possible damage", not 10 percent as they had expected.

The latest figure of registered voters is over 155 million, the KPU cited data from the Central Statistics Agency (BPS), who would cast their votes at over 574,000 polling stations across the country and abroad.

Ramlan also confirmed earlier findings that many potential voters still did not know how to mark their ballots correctly.

A broad survey conducted by the KPU found that voters pierced the picture and name of their preferred candidates on the ballots before unfolding them completely, thus punching two holes instead of one, which was an invalid vote.

Polling station attendants are therefore being reminded by the KPU to remind voters beforehand to open the ballot papers completely before marking them.

The ballot paper features five squares, each containing the photographs and names of a presidential candidate and their running mate.

Separately, KPU member Chusnul Mar'iyah said the commission was ready to launch its website, tnp.kpu.go.id, on July 4. The website is to display an updated computerized tally compiling votes from across the country.

"The system is ready. We have also trained 15,000 volunteers to enter data. (Through the site) We will learn the results of the election quickly and directly from most subdistricts across the country," Chusnul explained, although she conceded that the system would not be available in areas without electricity or telephone lines.

She said the KPU's Information Technology team had tightened its online security in order to prevent a repeat of the April 5 legislative election, when a student had hacked into it.

However, KPU expert Basuki Suhardjiman said they could not guarantee that the system would run smoothly and timely, without mishaps.