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.