KPU delays ballot paper printing for another week

KPU delays ballot paper printing for another week

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The printing of 600 million ballot papers has been delayed for
another week, the General Elections Commission (KPU) said on
Tuesday.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said ballot paper printing
would not start until Feb. 15 as print negatives would not be
ready until Feb. 12. It would then take up to two days to final-
check the printing process he said.

Previously, the KPU said it would start printing the ballot
papers on Feb. 5 but it rescheduled the date to Feb. 8 because it
had not finished verifying the legislative candidates.

Ramlan assured the public printing would be completed within
20 days to avoid a domino effect of more delays in the election
process.

Ballot papers and boxes are scheduled to reach all 560,000
polling stations 10 days before the start of the April 5 general
elections.

The KPU has selected 18 of the 20 firms that will print the
ballot papers. However, it has yet to determine the area of
coverage of each winning bidder.

Among the winners are Temprina Media Grafika, Genta
Singgalang, State Printing Company (PNRI), and state-owned
securities paper and bank note printing company (Peruri).

Ramlan said the KPU might divide the country into 10 printing
areas centered in Jakarta, Bandung, Semarang, Surakarta,
Surabaya, Makassar, Medan, Padang and Palembang.

Film-negatives were currently being processed by PNRI and
Grafitec. The two companies had promised to finish the negatives
for House of Representatives legislative candidates and Regional
Representatives candidates by Friday, Ramlan said.

The negatives for candidates of provincial and regental
legislatures would be ready by Feb. 16, Ramlan said.

Separately, KPU deputy secretary general Sussongko Suhardjo
said ballot box producer Survindo Indah Prestasi had requested
its production target be cut to make only 601,000 of the 877,000
boxes it was contracted to produce.

The KPU received on Tuesday a letter dated Jan. 28 from the
company, formally asking for the commission's leniency.

Sussongko said the KPU would grant to the request and give the
remaining 276,000 boxes to CV Almas, which finished third in the
tender.

A company executive connected to the process said Pura
Barutama, the firm contracted to produce the voter registration
cards, and another firm, Bukaka, were offering Almas money to
help take over production from Survindo.

Ferry Alfiand, of PT Cipta Kreasi Packindo, one of 11
factories subcontracted by Survindo, confirmed all factories
would leave Survindo and cooperate with Pura and Almas to produce
the remaining ballot boxes.

Survindo was initially named the sole winner of the tender to
make all of the 2.19 million boxes required for the elections.

It had spent Rp 36.4 billion to buy enough raw materials to
produce 575,000 boxes but had only managed to produce 430,000,
Ferry said.

Almas has been given 10 percent of the total number of ballot
boxes needed for the elections, while second-ranked Tjakrindo Mas
has been awarded the contract to produce 50 percent of the boxes.

Tjakrindo representative Mochtar B.U. said his company had
completed 877,000 ballot boxes and KPU had disbursed the first
down-payment amounting to Rp 31 billion to his company.