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.