Computerized vote-counting to stay

JAKARTA: The General Elections Commission (KPU) will maintain computerized vote counting for the election runoff, despite the opposition from the House of Representatives.

A KPU official tasked with organizing the computerized vote counting Chusnul Mar'iyah said on Thursday a new software for vote-counting in the runoff had been installed and staff to enter data in remote regions had been dispatched.

"In the afternoon of Sept. 20, we hope that a large amount of data will stream into our data center, which will be set up in a hotel in Jakarta," Chusnul told reporters here.

The KPU has allotted Rp 9 billion (US$1 million) to pay the accommodation of the staff. The House budgetary committee has turned down the Rp 40 billion budget for the computerized vote counting in the runoff and demanded instead an audit on the electronic data collection system. -- JP