From ballot box to final results

From ballot box to final results

JAKARTA (JP): The long process of counting 124.7 million
ballots will begin this afternoon, only hours after election
committees from the capital's center to the remotest island close
their ballot stations.

This is all part of the "festival of democracy" in the world's
fourth most populous country, and the seventh general election
since independence in 1945.

Citizens who are married or at least 17 years of age are
eligible to vote, but the government will not let political
prisoners or people serving at least five years in jail vote.

All 305,219 polling stations will open at 8 a.m. and close at
2 p.m. local times.

The 1.8 million eligible voters overseas may vote at embassies
between 8 p.m. and 2 p.m. at the respective local times.

Today is not a public holiday despite millions having to stop
work to vote. Millions of people will vote at polling stations
near their schools, universities and places of work.

Today's vote is the climax of 12 months of preparation to
decide who will occupy 425 of the 500 seats in the House of
Representatives. The government has approved 1,803 legislative
candidates fielded by three parties.

General elections have been a five-yearly routine since 1977.
The country's first two elections were held in 1955 and 1971.

Political laws introduced in 1973 restricted participation in
elections to only three parties: Golkar which has been in power
since 1971; the United Development Party (PPP) which has a Moslem
orientation; and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) which grew
out of an alliance of Christian-nationalist parties.

The election follows "direct, free and confidential"
principles. No one is allowed to vote by proxy.

After registering at polling stations by swapping their voting
notifications for ballot papers, people will proceed to private
booths to vote.

Besides the officials in charge of registration and voting,
there will be three official scrutineers, one from each party, at
every polling station. Elections committees may pick volunteers
to scrutinize voting procedures on behalf of parties which fail
to provide their own scrutineers.

Voters will punch holes in the symbol of one of the three
parties on three separate ballot papers, to chose representatives
at each of the country's three levels of legislature. The three
ballot papers must then be placed in three different boxes,
reflecting the three tiers of legislature. This system applies in
every province except Jakarta.

Ballots for the House of Representatives will be cast in
yellow boxes. Ballots for provincial legislative councils will be
cast in white boxes. And ballots for local councils will be cast
in blue boxes.

People in Jakarta will only vote for the House and the
provincial legislative council.

Symbol

Each ballot paper shows three symbols -- one for each of the
three parties -- under the numbers one to three. The PPP is
number one with a five-pointed star, Golkar is number two with a
banyan tree and the PDI is number three with a bull's head.

Ballot counting will start at 2 p.m. at each of the polling
stations. The officer in charge of each station will supervise
the counting under the watchful eyes of the three scrutineers.
Results of the counting will be written on large boards so that
everybody at the stations can monitor it.

After finishing counting, elections committees and scrutineers
will sign seven copies of reports on the number of votes for each
of the parties, the number of void ballots and any complaints
lodged by scrutineers or voters.

Despite these precautions, reports will be considered valid
without scrutineers' signatures.

Scrutineers will not receive copies of the reports, denying
the parties any chance to sue the National Elections Committee
over cheating allegations.

Both the PPP and PDI have repeatedly complained of
irregularities during ballot counting at past elections, and have
tried in vain to change the election rules.

Independent researcher Alexander Irwan published a book in
1995 which said that 1,000 irregularities occurred in the 1992
election, 510 of them at polling stations.

Political scientist Syamsuddin Harris said elections under the
New Order government were open to cheating because the
bureaucracy acted as the election organizer and Golkar's patron.

Members of national and neighborhood elections committees are
all bureaucrats and therefore Golkar functionaries.

The Coordinating Agency for Election Communication Systems
will oversee the couriers who deliver ballot boxes from polling
stations to subdistrict offices.

Poll results from the country's 3,903 subdistricts will be
transmitted to 305 regencies using an Armed Forces' radio
network.

The state telecommunications company PT Telkom will then
takeover the transmission of election results to the National
Elections Committee's office. Telkom will be backed up by the
Armed Forces and local government telecommunication's networks.

Only the National Elections Committee and five government
officials will have access to the database compiling the election
results.

The officials are President Soeharto, Vice President Try
Sutrisno, Armed Forces chief Gen. Feisal Tanjung, Minister of
Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. and Minister of Information
Harmoko.

Harmoko is also Golkar's chairman. Yogie is chairman of the
General Elections Institute and the National Elections Committee.

Preliminary results from counting in the 27 provinces will be
broadcast by state television station TVRI from 7 p.m. tonight.
Updates will be broadcast hourly for several days, before the
government announces the final result on June 17.

Golkar, the unanimous winner of the last five elections, is
setting its sights on gaining at least 70 percent of the vote.
(amd)