Election delay looms as ballot printing falls behind schedule
Election delay looms as ballot printing falls behind schedule
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Fears of a possible election delay are looming larger as the
General Elections Commission (KPU) conceded on Monday that ballot
papers would not be printed until Feb. 5, four days behind the
original schedule of Feb. 1.
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the delay was due to
the slow verification of the 20 consortia that participated in
the ballot paper tender and the late completion of the final list
of legislative candidates.
"The printing and the packing of the ballot papers will take
20 days," said Ramlan, while expressing the fear that the
printing of the ballot papers would not be completed on time.
Indonesia will hold a general election on April 5 to choose
members of the House of Representatives, and provincial and
regency legislative assemblies, and members of the Regional
Representatives Council. A total of 24 political parties will
participate in the elections.
According to Ramlan, the KPU was still checking the production
capacity and machine specifications of the 20 consortia that
participated in the ballot paper tender.
The KPU, he said, planned to appoint a number of consortium to
print the ballot papers, with each being responsible for printing
and distribution in a several districts.
The commission was waiting for the final list of legislative
candidates from local elections commissions (KPUD), according to
Ramlan. At least 24 regency KPUDs had not yet submitted their
final list of legislative candidates to the KPU.
At least 600 million ballot papers are needed for the April 5
election as each of the country's 145.7 million voters has to
punch four papers -- one each for the House, provincial
legislature, regency/municipal legislature, and Regional
Representatives Council.
The delay in the printing of the ballot papers has left the
KPU with another headache after the winner of the ballot box
tender failed to meet production targets.
The KPU is still trying to get companies to produce 400,000
out of 2.19 million ballot boxes after the commission cut short
its contract with tender winner PT Survindo Indah Prestasi for
failing to meet the agreed targets.
"Our team is still calculating the exact number of ballot
boxes that have yet to be produced," he said.
According to KPU data issued on Friday, tender winner Survindo
has produced 365,660 ballot boxes and still has sufficient raw
materials to produce 235,000 more ballot boxes.
Following Survindo's failure, the KPU appointed PT Tjakrindo
Mas to produce 877,956, or 40 percent, out of the total 2.19
million ballot boxes needed for the upcoming elections. A third
company, CV Almas, has also been appointed, this time to produce
219,416 boxes.
The commission had planned to award the remaining 406,143
boxes to Tjakrindo, but the company's financial capabilities come
under close scrutiny last week when it asked the KPU to pay up
even before the company had delivered around 35 percent of its
877,956 ballot boxes to regencies/municipalities.
The KPU has set March 5 as the deadline for producers to
deliver the ballot boxes to all regencies/municipalities across
the country.
"The remaining ballot boxes should be produced by the present
firms because if we give the order to new firms, they will need
several weeks just to prepare the tools to produce the boxes,"
Ramlan said.
Meanwhile, Monopoly Watch chairman Samuel Nitisaputra said
that the KPU must announce publicly its contingency plan for
ballot box production.
"This contingency plan is important to avoid any more
emergencies during the election preparations," he said.