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.