KPU starts delivering computers

JAKARTA: The General Elections Commission (KPU) on Monday started delivering 7,092 computers for ballot counting in next year's elections to subdistricts across the country.

KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin said the computers would help speed up the ballot count in the 2004 elections.

He also said that the announcement of the delivery of the computers to subdistricts should prompt the relevant institutions to provide computer operators in the more than 400 regencies and municipalities around the country.

A total of 24 political parties have been declared eligible to contest the legislative election scheduled for April 5, 2004.

Parties or coalitions of parties that garner at least 5 percent of the total vote in the legislative election, or 3 percent of the seats in the House of Representatives, will be allowed to field candidates in the country's first direct presidential election on July 5, 2004. -- JP