Govt preparing contingency plan for polls

Fabiola Desy Unidjaja The Jakarta Post Jakarta

In anticipation of the possible delay of the general election, the government has developed a number of contingency plans, a minister said on Thursday.

Coordinating Minister for Political and Security Affairs Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said that technical or security problems would be the most likely cause of a change in schedule for the elections.

The minister was responding to the National Resilience Institute's (Lemhanas) request on Wednesday for the government to draw up a contingency plan for the elections. Lemhanas had also expressed concern over delays in ballot box procurement and the printing of ballot papers.

"These kind of technical problems could hamper the whole process of elections preparations, although a delay, if any, would not be that drastic," Susilo said.

The legislative election is scheduled for April 5, and will be contested by 24 political parties. The landmark direct presidential election will follow on July 5, with a possible runoff on Sept. 20 -- if no candidate wins the majority of votes and manages to garner 20 percent of the votes in at least 16 provinces.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) has encountered difficulties in the production of the 2.19 million ballot boxes required.

KPU recently appointed 18 companies to print 160 million ballot papers, but the printing has been moved to Sunday, one week behind the original schedule.

He said the government, KPU and the Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) would hold a meeting next week to identify any existing problems in the elections process.

"As soon as we have a list of problems, we can prepare the contingency plans together in detail and (take) measures to make the elections a success," Susilo said.