Late ballot paper printing threatens poll

Late ballot paper printing threatens poll

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The printing of ballot papers may be moved further back as film
printing firms have still not finished the templates for the
ballots, which will greatly delay the delivery of the election
materials to all the polling stations.

KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah, who chaired the ballot paper
tender committee, said on Monday the companies would be delayed
at least until Thursday to finish all 211 templates for the
election of provincial legislative (DPRD I) members and 1,744
templates for the election of regency/municipality councillors
(DPRD II).

KPU has named State Printing Firm (PNRI) and Grafitecindo to
produce the templates for the elections.

Mulyana, however, played down the impending delay.

"So far, the situation is still under control," he told
reporters.

The delays have forced the KPU to revise the schedule of
ballot paper printing by four weeks to March 1 and their arrival
to polling stations by five days to March 30 after agreeing on a
condition that the printing jobs get done at extra speed.

Earlier the commission set a March 25 deadline for all
election materials to arrive at polling stations across the
country.

The KPU selected 18 companies to print the 660 million ballot
papers for the April 5 legislative election.

Separately, CV Riski Grafis, a member of a company led by
Dharma Anugerah said they would complete the printing of 27.1
million ballots in 10 days at full operational capacity.

"But we haven't received all the materials yet for 23.4
million papers Regional Representative Council (DPD) members. If
we are forced to speed up the printing work, we might have to
subcontract some of it out," Ari Gania, senior executive of Riski
Grafis said.

He complained about the size of the template too, as it was
larger than standard office paper, making it difficult to print
the first 3.7 million ballot papers.

Riski Grafis is responsible for ballot papers for the DPR
candidates in East Java electoral district IX, for DPD in West
Java electoral districts III to X.

Temprina Media Grafika group, which won the contract to print
48.4 million ballot papers, promised to finish the job in three
to four days.

Temprina, which includes Newspaper Publishers Union (SPS)
members PT Temprint, PT Gramedia and PT Sinar Agape, will print
ballot papers for the election of House members in South Sulawesi
electoral district I, II, Lampung II, East Java II, III, IV, V,
VII, X, East Java I, East Nusa Tenggara I, II, Papua, West
Kalimantan and for the DPD in East Java I, VI, VIII, West
Kalimantan, West Nusa Tenggara and East Kalimantan.

Using a simple calculation of the maximum 10-day period to
print ballot papers and adding the time for delivery of polling
materials to the capital cities of Papua, Maluku and Gorontalo
(it took eight days in past elections), some provinces will only
receive the ballot papers for the election of House and DPD
members by March 20. It will take longer to reach the regencies
in those provinces and more time to reach each village polling
station.

If the printing of the ballot papers for the election of DPRD
I and DPRD II start on March 4 or 5, it could be very tight.

Racing against time, KPU plans to ask the Air Force to help
speed up the delivery of ballot papers in some regions, including
Papua, West Irian Jaya, Maluku, Kalimantan, Aceh, East Nusa
Tenggara and the Riau Islands.

The Air Force will help deliver the ballots to airports, and
the Regional Military Command (Kodam) will send the ballots to
regencies/municipalities, KPU deputy secretary general Sussongko
Suhardjo said.