No more election delays after Tuesday: KPU
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta/Ambon/Kupang
The General Elections Commission (KPU) said on Monday the last poll would take place in Paniai regency in Papua on Tuesday, four days behind the April 9 deadline due to transportation problems.
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the late voting would be held in four polling stations, with the ballot counting expected to be completed on Wednesday.
"The election there will occur very late as ballot papers could not reach the regency on Friday because of the absence of flights on Good Friday. On Saturday, the ballot papers could not be transported due to bad weather, while on Sunday, there was no flight again in observance of Easter," he said.
Papua, the easternmost province in the country is predominantly Christian. Paniai is located at the foot of Jayawijaya mountain range, some 600 kilometers southwest of the provincial capital of Jayapura.
But Papua Provincial Elections Commission (KPUD) secretary Hasyim Sangaji said the delayed voting would also take place in some polling stations in Bintang Mountain regency and Merauke regency on Tuesday.
Logistical problems have been the cause of most delays with the exception of four polling stations in Okaba district in Merauke, the country's easternmost town which borders Papua New Guinea. Voting could not take place on April 5 after an attack on poll committee members. A police officer was killed in the attack, which was blamed on the Free Papua Organization (OPM) rebel group.
Ramlan said polling stations that held staggered elections should complete the ballot counting as soon as possible, so that the KPU could meet the target of announcing the election results on April 30 at the latest.
"However, our internal target is to complete the manual ballot counting on April 25 at the latest," he said.
Some 1,100 polling stations in 17 provinces from a total of 585,218 polling stations were unable to open for voters on April 5 mostly due to the absence of ballot papers.
Meanwhile, the Maluku Provincial Elections Commission (KPUD) decided to conduct an election rerun on Wednesday in two polling stations in West Southeast Maluku regency after a local polling station head and a local district head were found to have rigged the votes.
Maluku KPUD member, Matheos George Lailossa, said on Monday that the decision was made after the KPUD and local election supervisory committee (Panwaslu) investigated a report filed by 18 political parties over the manipulation.
The investigation over the weekend found that the polling station head and the district head punched ballot papers fore Golkar Party on behalf of a number of voters. They are both being detained at the Larat Police precinct.
KPUD Maluku has provided 600 ballot papers for the revote in the two polling stations, Lailossa told The Jakarta Post.
Separately in Kupang, East Nusa Tenggara Police are hunting down a group of people who stole the report of ballot counting from 10 polling stations kept in West Amarasi subdistrict administration office.
Johan Neparasi, who guards the office, said the documents were stolen over the weekend, when the office was empty in observance of Easter.
However, the head of the Kupang elections commission, Jhon Tiran, denied the report, saying the documents had been submitted by the subdistrict administration office to the KPU on Saturday evening.
Besides the delay in the poll, Ramlan said the KPU would give voters a final chance to register for the July 5 presidential election. Registration can be done with neighborhood community (RT/RW) leaders or village administration officials from April 25 to May 10.
KPU will announce the temporary list of eligible voters from May 11 to May 18 to enable people to verify the list before the final roster is announced on May 25.