KPU ready to hold manual vote count

KPU ready to hold manual vote count

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta

Thirty provinces have submitted their manual vote tally to the
General Elections Commission (KPU), a commission official said.

The commission is planning to hold the manual count on
Saturday (today) and announce the official result of the July 5
presidential election on Monday.

The official who wished to remain anonymous told The Jakarta
Post that only the two new provinces of Gorontalo and West Irian
Jaya had not sent the recapitulation of their count by Friday.

She said the Gorontalo Elections Commission (KPUD) had
contacted the KPU to inform that they were on the way to Jakarta.

"One of its members has spoken to us over the phone and
informed us that they were on their way to Jakarta. We believe
they will make it today," she said.

Uncertainty, however, still hangs over the West Irian Jaya
KPUD, which until Friday evening had not sent any message to the
KPU.

"We haven't received any news from West Irian Jaya KPUD as to
whether or not it will be ready to present the final result
today," she said.

The KPU will announce the two presidential aspirants for the
runoff, slated for Sept. 20 on Monday. The manual vote counting
will be held at the Jakarta Convention Center (JCC) in Central
Jakarta.

According to the electronic vote counting, Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono is leading the tally, with 33.57 percent of 106.8
million votes counted. Trailing behind him are Megawati
Soekarnoputri with 26.27 percent, Wiranto 22.2 percent, Amien
Rais 14.9 percent and Hamzah Haz 3 percent.

In the national manual tally slated for Saturday,
representatives from provincial KPUDs will open forms bearing the
number of votes garnered by each presidential candidate in the
July 5 poll in front of all KPU members and witnesses sent by the
campaign teams, the Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) and
independent poll observers.

Should there be complaints from witnesses about
inconsistencies between the data they collected and that of the
provincial KPUDs, the KPU must at once crosscheck the count based
on the final count from the regental KPUDs.

The final result of the vote counting must be delivered to the
People's Consultative Assembly (MPR), the President, political
parties or coalitions of political parties that nominated
presidential candidates and the candidates themselves, within
three days after the manual count.

If presidential candidates dispute the final tally, they can
seek recourse with the Constitutional Court. Law No. 23/2003 on
direct presidential elections stipulates that the court must
deliver a verdict within 14 working days.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the manual vote count
would be the only legitimate basis to determine the election
result and presidential candidates could challenge the result
based on data collected by their witnesses at the polling station
level.

Citing widespread irregularities during and after the poll,
Golkar Party's presidential candidate Wiranto may contest the
result of the KPU manual vote count.