Late counting hinders parties' vote estimates

Late counting hinders parties' vote estimates

JAKARTA (JP): Political parties have experienced difficulties
collecting returns from provinces and regencies across the
country because of poor communication facilities and late ballot
counting.

They are racing against time, collecting their own information
on poll results, as opposed to data fed to the General Elections
Committee (KPU), in a bid to minimize poll rigging.

Party officials said on Tuesday the main problems were a lack
of telephone lines and late ballot counting. Many polling
officials reported that they had finished counting votes early
Tuesday.

Retur Kaligis of the Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle
(PDI Perjuangan) said as of Tuesday, the party had received
returns from North Sumatra, Jakarta, Central Java and Aceh.

Another staffer said as of 7:15 p.m. the party had an average
of 80 percent of votes in Bali regencies, 50 percent in Jambi and
over 40 percent in Central Java.

Kaligis said the information was received from party
provincial and regency branches officials faxing or phoning in
results to the party's ballot-counting office in the Wisma
Perjuangan building in Pecenongan, Central Jakarta.

"Data is fed into the computer by seven people here. We are
planning to go online soon, but I can't tell exactly when,"
Kaligis said.

Dwita, another PDI Perjuangan official in charge of collecting
poll information from the provinces, said the party wanted to see
all data cross-checked by the party's two committees before
making any public announcements.

She said she did not expect to obtain a complete report from
Greater Jakarta until Wednesday or Thursday, because in some
places ballot counting had not been completed until late Monday.

"There are many problems: no ballot cards, no ballot
holograms, no ink ... the list goes on."

Eki Indra Wahyudi, a staff member at the National Mandate
Party (PAN) ballot-counting center, which has a 24-hour online
communication system with provincial representatives nationwide,
said he was yet to receive vote results.

"We're also confused. We heard that we won in Padang, West
Sumatra, but we haven't got any figures yet," Eki said Tuesday
afternoon.

Didiek, a National Awakening Party (PKB) official in charge of
statistical affairs said his party had only received data from 10
polling stations in Jakarta.

He said he hoped to receive detailed reports from across the
country in five days.

"We have been checking for results since 11:30 p.m. on Monday
with PKB provincial and regency branches ... staff members said
that counting would take a very long time," Didiek said from his
office which boasted two telephone/fax lines.

A Golkar Party official, Hansigar, was the only party
representative with a success story.

By 10:22 p.m. Golkar's monitoring revealed national results of
2,955,195 votes for PDI Perjuangan and 2,325,146 votes for
Golkar, followed by PPP with 688,818 votes and PAN with 492,014.

He said the party's ballot-counting team, comprising more than
10 people, were receiving updates every half-hour from 20
provinces, with each provincial and regency office possessing at
least one telephone line.

He said provincial branches which had not filed reports were
Jakarta, North Sumatra, Central Sulawesi, Bengkulu and East
Timor. "We are not using state facilities. All the telephone
lines were installed in early May and will be cut off after two
months."

Dento, a systems analyst at the multimedia firm Warta Global,
said the company had set up an online system at 18 terminals here
for data-processing for the Golkar party.

"No Internet service provider is used... it's a special line
only for the party," he said.

Dento added that the online information was currently
accessible only by Golkar provincial executives in Java, Bali and
Riau. (ylt)