Ink crisis hits Wamena

Ink crisis hits Wamena

WAMENA, Irian Jaya: Half of the hundreds of bottles of ink to
be used in Monday's polls are broken, a local election official
reported Saturday.

The ink was received from Jakarta via the local post office
for 476 polling places across Jayawijaya regency.

Henky Nahuway, deputy chief of the Jayawijaya election
committee said he had Jakarta send 250 bottles of ink to
substitute the broken ones but none had arrived by Saturday.

The indelible ink will be used to mark the fingers of people
who have cast ballot papers so that they will not go to other
polling places to cast another vote.

"Villagers here know each other well," Henky told Antara.
"Furthermore a polling places are located far away from each
other and so it's unlikely that people can vote more than once."

Apart from the broken ink bottles, electoral preparations in
the regency were reported to be proceeding smoothly.

Balloting materials were transported by way of Cessna aircraft
belonging to missionary groups and the army to 28 subdistricts
throughout Jayawijaya.