Govt pledges election totals for May 30
JAKARTA (JP): Provisional election results will be made public less than 24 hours after polling stations close at 2 p.m. on May 29, the government said Wednesday.
The Coordinating Agency for Election Communication Systems' spokesman, Tjetjep Suparman, said results for about 95 percent of votes were expected to be made public in the afternoon of May 30.
The government created the agency to help provide and mobilize communication links to transmit election results. The agency is overseen by the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Tourism, Post and Telecommunications and Ministry of Defense.
About 120 million people are registered to vote at 305,219 polling stations across the country.
Preliminary results from counting in the 27 provinces will be broadcasted by state television station TVRI from 7 p.m. on election day. Updates will be broadcasted hourly.
All available communication links would be mobilized to provide speedy and accurate updating of ballot counting, Tjetjep said. The agency would provide better and faster coverage than it did in the 1992 election.
In 1992, provisional results for 95 percent of votes were announced at 2 p.m the day after the poll.
The agency plans to utilize the national citizen band radio organization and Indosat and PT Telkom networks to transmit results.
The agency, whose senior staff consists of Armed Forces officers, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of Communications officials, Telkom and Indosat staff, ran a final test of its communication system yesterday.
Radio frequencies
The government will tighten controls on the use of radio frequencies from May 19 until June 9 to help facilitate ballot counting.
Director General of Post and Telecommunications Djakaria Purawidjaja said yesterday that the measures were needed to ensure that unauthorized use of frequencies did not disrupt the Coordinating Agency for Election Communication Systems' broadcasts of preliminary results.
"The government will take immediate action if it detects any illegal use of radio frequencies," he said.
Many people use radio communications equipment without licenses. This often disturbs official telecommunications operators, including cellular operators, radio trunking providers, the authorities and other users.
The government has raided illegal operators, but people persistently use frequencies illegally.
The agency would use a point-to-point communications system, including radio communications equipment to transmit data from district polling booths to provincial election committees, Djakaria said. (mds/icn)