Elections on schedule despite preparation snags
JAKARTA (JP): Reports of glitches in the logistics of poll preparations continued to stream in from various regions on Saturday, but the National Elections Committee (PPI) was confident the poll will take place as scheduled on Monday.
PPI chairman Jacob Tobing said materials such as ballot papers, hologram stickers to be attached to the sheets, related forms and documents have reached the polling stations.
The election authorities estimated 320,000 polling stations are being readied across the country for 112 million registered voters. An estimated 60 percent of the voters live in rural areas.
In addition, at least 60 percent of the votes will have been tabulated by Monday evening.
Jacob said preparations commenced satisfactorily even in regions which were affected by violence and clashes.
"We hope this conducive situation can be maintained until the voting day," he said.
The reports of lack of preparation came from various areas.
In Buton, Southeast Sulawesi, the local elections committee has yet to receive 40,000 hologram stickers and other materials for the polls from the General Elections Commission (KPU) and PPI.
The committee's secretary, D.J. Gultom, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday, "We are very nervous because the hologram stickers are needed to determine the validity of the ballot sheets."
Gultom said the regency needed 759,084 hologram stickers but has received only 720,000 stickers from KPU.
The regency is currently accommodating more than 50,000 refugees from the riot-stricken Maluku capital of Ambon, with 20,000 of them being eligible voters.
Gultom said, however, the local chapters of the political parties have agreed to continue with the poll even if the hologram stickers failed to reach capital Bau-bau on Monday.
Committee chairman Ambo Sakka threatened earlier to cancel the poll in the regency if the KPU insisted on having the stickers affixed to the ballot sheets.
The local chapter of the University Network for Free and Fair Elections (UNFREL) found that at least 158 polling stations out of the 690 necessary have yet to be set up.
"The committee said that it had set up all of the polling stations but we found 158 have yet to be erected," UNFREL's coordinator La Asa said.
The poll may also have to be delayed in some areas in Maluku because facilities such as the forms and the indelible ink needed to prevent multiballoting have yet to reach there.
Maluku's election committee executive A. Rahawarin told Antara on Saturday, "We are working to complete the preparations for the polls."
Rahawarin said at least four regencies -- North Maluku, Central Maluku, South East Maluku and Tual -- reported a lack of polls materials.
"We have contacted KPU, but officials there replied that the materials have been brought in on a chartered plane," he said.
"The polls can be postponed for up to 30 days after June 7. It's allowed by the regulation," Rahawarin said.
Back in Jakarta, UNFREL chairman Todung Mulya Lubis said that the organization is ready to monitor Monday's poll.
"We call on the public to report to us if they find violations during the polls," Lubis said on Saturday.
He said UNFREL has deployed 105,000 volunteers to monitor polling stations in 22 provinces.
On Saturday, UNFREL activists distributed brochures and orchids to motorists at the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta.
The city was free of political parties' supporters' noisy motorcades on Saturday. The day was, instead, marked by officials and workers cleaning up and dismantling party symbols and attributes, which have accumulated for at least the past three weeks.
Jakarta Governor Sutiyoso, Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Djadja Suparman and representatives of all political parties, witnessed the start of the dismantling on Jl. Thamrin at Friday midnight.
Sutiyoso said the city administration had set Sunday midnight as the deadline for the removal of all party attributes from various spots in the capital.
Thousands of wooden posts, known as "command posts", erected throughout the city by supporters of Megawati Soekarnoputri of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), had to be demolished as well, he said.
"All will have to be pulled down and I hope all parties concerned can accept this decision and implement it as soon as possible," he said.
In Yogyakarta, supporters of PDI Perjuangan repainted the red posts white or tore them down.
Mesan, a Sleman resident, said here on Saturday, "It's actually better to just paint the posts white so they can be used as security outposts, rather than tearing them down," (27/44/48/jun)