Fears remain over possible election delay

Kurniawan Hari and Abdul Khalik, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

With only 21 days left until election day on April 5, barely 30 percent of districts in 10 monitored provinces had received the necessary materials, according to the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro).

In a press conference on Sunday representatives of Cetro, a non-governmental organization, acknowledged progress regarding election preparations by the General Elections Commission (KPU) but reiterated its fears of a possible delay, despite KPU's optimism.

"69.4 percent of the districts being monitored have not received ballot boxes," Cetro executive director Smita Notosusanto said.

Many districts, regencies and provinces had neither received ballot boxes nor polling booths, she added. The KPU is also in charge of issuing the 660 million ballot papers, of which the printing and distribution has been rescheduled a number of times.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno has said that the government might still be able to overcome shortcomings such as polling booths or ballot boxes, though he did not elaborate. But he said the ballot papers would entirely depend on the KPU.

Cetro's volunteers, totaling about 700 people, had yet to monitor the arrival of ballot papers, which KPU said had been sent to most areas. Smita said the volunteers had monitored the preparation of ballot booths and polling booth equipment since the end of February in 51 cities and regencies in 10 provinces.

They comprise North and South Sumatra, West and South Kalimantan, South Sulawesi, West Nusa Tenggara, Bali, East and Central Java and Jakarta.

Smita said no districts in South Sumatra, West Nusa Tenggara, or Banyuwangi, East Java had received the materials to set up polling booths.

Separately executive director of the Independent Commission for Election Monitoring (KIPP), Ray Rangkuti, said that the campaign had so far been peaceful, but parties had weak discipline about obeying the campaign rules.

"We've received reports from Bali of an explosion of a small bomb," he said. He added that reports from Lampung in South Sumatra revealed that parties had difficulties in getting permits for their campaign activities, but that these were "small" incidents.

KIPP also noted minor violations such as campaigning in the wrong place and at the wrong time, using motorbikes and trailers which disturbed traffic and campaigning in other party's designated campaign areas. KIPP said the more serious violations included campaigning without officially requesting time off without pay by the President, vice president and several ministers.

"The President, vice president and 15 ministers have not submitted the necessary documents for their leave of absence. We consider the State Secretary's announcement on March 10 was ... to be merely a campaign schedule for these state officials," said Ray.

He said that KIPP had made an official complaint to the Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) to push KPU to cancel these officials' campaigns until they submitted the necessary paperwork.

He said that KIPP had deployed around 2,200 people to monitor the election in 30 provinces and over 300 cities and regencies.

Zainal A. Suryokusumo of the Radio Network for Election Monitoring (JRPP) agreed that the campaign was running smoothly so far.

"However we're remaining on alert because we fear chaos in the last week of the campaigning period," said Zainal.

There are 28 organizations which have permits from KPU to monitor the elections, including 23 local and five foreign organizations. The international groups include the Electoral Observation Mission from the European Union, Interbrand from Japan and the Australian Electoral Commission.