Mega asserts elections to take place on time

Oyos Saroso H.N. and Moch. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Bandar Lampung/Jakarta

Brushing aside technical and logistical problems the General Elections Commission (KPU) is facing, President Megawati Soekarnoputri asserted on Monday that the elections would proceed as scheduled.

"The elections are held once every five years and have been on the agenda. Therefore, they must take place on time and in an orderly manner," Megawati said while inaugurating Batutegi dam in Tanggamus, Lampung.

Megawati was responding to growing fears that the legislative election would be delayed due to unresolved problems in the procurement and delivery of election materials with only four weeks left.

Indonesia will hold the election of House of Representatives, Regional Representatives Council and provincial and regental/municipal legislature members on April 5. The landmark direct presidential election will follow on July 5.

"I disagree with people who say that the election dates are too close to one another. They are just right," Megawati said, citing the success of the 1999 general election, coming only two years after the 1997 election.

Separately, KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the commission had registered 147,867,525 eligible voters, both domestic and overseas. New voters between 17 to 21 years of age account for 22.1 million of eligible voters.

Ramlan said 247,295 voters in Malaysia and Singapore would vote for House and the Regional Representatives Council members in Jakarta electoral district I, and 157,159 voters outside the two countries will vote in Jakarta electoral district II.

"We apologize to those people who have not been registered, for not being able to exercise their right to vote. We have a very limited time until the elections," he said.

Ramlan said the KPU would hold a technical meeting in mid- March with regional KPU offices over unresolved problems regarding polling stations, ballot counting, seat allocation and election material distribution.

He played down flaws in electoral preparations over the weekend and asked the public not to take issue with it.

Ballot paper printing has sparked anxiety after the KPU thrice revised the printing deadline.

As of Monday, the 17 winning companies of the printing tender had completed 160 million of 660 million ballot papers and started delivering the materials.

Mufti Mubarok, spokesman for Temprina Medi Grafika, which won a contract to print 54 million papers, said it could finish by Wednesday only ballot papers for the House election, while delivery would begin from the most remote province of Papua.

Another major printer, the State Printing Company, said it would complete all printing by March 20.

Minor printer Aneka Ilmu has completed 85 percent of a 22- million print run. Spokesman Suwanto estimated the next print run for the provincial legislative election to finish by March 17.

The KPU expects all election materials to reach nationwide polling stations five days before the general election.