Most KPUDs miss submission deadline
Most KPUDs miss submission deadline
Moch. N. Kurniawan and Nani Farida, The Jakarta Post,
Jakarta/Banda Aceh
The General Elections Commission (KPU) will hold manual ballot
counting in stages starting from Friday after only 145 of 440
regions submitted their election results to the commission on
time.
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said only two provinces --
Bangka Belitung and Bali -- had delivered all their regional
election results by the Tuesday deadline.
Central Java, East Java and Yogyakarta, provinces that have
sent most of their results, were expected to complete the
delivery on Wednesday.
"We have to start data entry (of the results) in stages,
followed by manual ballot counting that will be witnessed by 24
political parties and Election Supervisory Committee
representatives," Ramlan said after a plenary meeting.
The KPU had no other choice but to accept the late results
from the regions, he said.
"We will still try to meet our internal deadline of April 25
to finish manual ballot counting and determine the final results
by April 28 at the latest," Ramlan said.
"If we fail to meet that deadline, I'm afraid the preparations
for the presidential election will be disrupted."
Ramlan said four regencies in North Sumatra, including North
Tapanuli, Samosir and Humbang would hold new elections on
Tuesday.
Law No 12/2003 on the legislative election says manual ballot
counting results must be announced no more than 30 days after
polling day, which fell on April 5. The KPU has said it will
announce the results by April 28.
However, it has already pushed back the election timetable due
to earlier delays and a source said the schedule would likely be
revised once again to anticipate the late delivery of results.
So far, vote totals from manual ballot counting are still not
available.
But based on electronic counting, Golkar tops the results with
19,401,252 votes, or 21.14 percent; followed by the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) with 17,878,608 votes, or
19.48 percent; and the National Awakening Party (PKB) with
10,908,135 million votes, or 11.89 percent.
Separately, in Banda Aceh, 14 political parties rejected the
results of ballot counting in Aceh due to alleged violations.
The parties said the violations at the polling stations were
committed by members of the polling station working committees.
"We call on the martial law administration in Aceh to take
firm action against perpetrators (of electoral fraud)," the
parties, which included Golkar and the Democratic Party, said in
a joint statement.
They branded the KPU as arrogant and lacking in transparency.