Elections prep in crisis: Lemhannas
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Following a series of technical and logistical problems that put the elections at risk, the National Resilience Institute (Lemhannas) is calling on the government and the General Elections Commission (KPU) to implement crisis management in preparing for the polls.
"The election may not fail, but it might not take place as scheduled. This is the latest condition based on our data. Only abnormal people still think the electoral preparations are still normal," Lemhannas governor Ermaya Suradinata was quoted by Antara as saying on Saturday.
Ermaya said management crisis was urgently needed, as the procurement of election materials, ranging from ballot boxes to ballot papers, was not yet ready with less than a month to go.
"The (poor) preparation is more of a concern given the fact that the delivery of materials will take time. Management crisis strategies will allow the KPU and the government to deploy all their human resources and work together in preparing for the polls in one month," Ermaya said.
In its implementation, crisis management could prompt the KPU to ask its regional offices to procure ballot boxes or polling booths themselves.
Ermaya said he had expressed its worry about the obstacles the KPU would face, but had received a cool response.
"I was not speaking nonsense. Lemhannas has detailed data and information from remote villages to the central government," he said.
The legislative election is scheduled to take place on April 5, when some 147 million people will elect members of the House of Representatives, regional legislatures and the Regional Representatives Council.
During the opening of a national administrative reform meeting in Makassar on Thursday, President Megawati dismissed calls to delay the elections and instead asked all regional governments to help the KPU prepare for the polls.
Ermaya's suggestion is justified by the crisis in the procurement of ballot papers, after the KPU and nine printing companies failed on Sunday to set a new deadline to complete printing ballot papers for the provincial and regental/municipal legislative elections.
In a meeting led by KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin, KPU deputy secretary-general Sussongko Suhardjo said the commission demanded that all printing of ballot papers finish on March 15.
As most tender winners have not provided an estimated date of completion, the meeting was adjourned until Monday.
None of the KPU members turned up for the crucial meeting on Sunday.
Sukip, representing a group of printing firms under Temprina Media Grafika, which is responsible for printing 68 million ballot papers for the regional legislative election, said the group could only finish on March 17 at the earliest. Previously, Temprina had predicted that production would finish on March 20.
Deni Ramdan from the group of printers led by State Printing Company, Wiena S. Tamin of the CV Dwi Rama group and Untung Sastrawijaya of the Pundi Mas Putra Indojaya group blamed the poor quality of the plain paper produced by Kertas Leces for the slow printing process.
Earlier on Saturday, the KPU set a March 14 deadline for all firms to complete production of ballot papers, but most of the companies said they could only finish printing for the House and Regional Representatives Council elections.
The KPU had already moved back the deadline from Feb. 29 to March 11.
Despite the as yet undetermined ballot paper printing deadline, the commission is reluctant to declare a state of emergency in electoral preparations.
On Saturday, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said he would declare a top alert status starting March 9 in anticipation of possible security problems in connection with the March 11 to April 1 campaign period preceding the general election.
The National Police will deploy two-thirds of its 250,000- strong force, along with the assistance of one million trained neighborhood watchmen to secure the elections.