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.