KPU to count via videoconference
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Semarang/Yogyakarta
Fearing that many provincial elections commissions (KPUD) will fail to meet the July 20 deadline for submitting the manual vote counting results, the General Elections Commission (KPU) said on Monday it would collect the tally through videoconferencing.
The KPU took the decision after learning that one day before the deadline and less than a week before it announces the final results, only four KPUDs had managed to send the final vote tallies.
The provinces were Bali, South Kalimantan, Jakarta and West Kalimantan, while two more provinces -- Yogyakarta and Central Java -- completed the manual vote counting on Monday.
KPU official overseeing the manual ballot counting Rusadi Kantaprawira said that most KPUDs failed to submit the vote- counting result on time due to financial constraints.
"KPUD members must come to Jakarta to submit the manual result. However, most of them cannot afford to come. Those in the far-flung provinces, meanwhile, had problems in finding transportation," he told a press briefing here.
The KPU is expected to stage a videoconference from a hotel in Jakarta from July 23 to July 25.
During the videoconference, members of the KPUDs from around the country will take turns presenting their manual vote counting results.
Law No. 23/2003 on presidential elections stipulates that three weeks after the election day, the KPU has to announce a winner and runner up of the first round of the poll if a runoff is to be held.
As of 6 p.m. on Monday, the computerized vote tally had collected over 105 million of an expected 155 million votes. The figure has changed slightly in the last couple of days.
Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and running mate Jusuf Kalla lead the poll with 33 percent of the vote, followed by incumbent President Megawati and Hasyim Muzadi with 26 percent.
Golkar Party candidate Wiranto and Solahuddin Wahid have not yet conceded defeat, pending the completion of vote counting in the country's remote regions where Golkar reigns supreme.
Manual vote counting in Central Java and Yogyakarta finished on Monday, with Megawati and Susilo topping the standings in the respective provinces.
A plenary meeting of Central Java KPUD endorsed the victory for Megawati with 5,807,127 votes, followed by Susilo with 5,276,432 votes, despite a protest from a member of Wiranto's campaign team.
Wiranto came third with 3,943,032 votes, Amien Rais and running mate Siswono Yudohusodo fourth with 2,409,144 and Hamzah Haz and Agum Gumelar last with 820,273 votes.
The manual ballot counting also found that almost 20 percent of 23,233,437 registered voters in the province did not exercise their right to vote.
In Yogyakarta, Susilo finished first with 576,012 votes to upset pre-race favorite Amien who garnered 558,068 votes.
Megawati was third with 557,113 votes, although her Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle won the April legislative election in the province. Wiranto came fourth with 334,067 votes, while Hamzah collected only 28,293 votes.