Papua lags behind on tabulation

Papua lags behind on tabulation

Nethy Darma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura, Papua

After election delays in many parts of Papua, the country's
easternmost province is now facing belated ballot counting due
its isolation, a lack of computers and expertise about tabulation
procedures.

The Papua Regional Elections Commission (KPUD) said on Tuesday
it had not yet received results of the ballot counting from the
province's polling stations where voting took place largely
without incident on Monday.

"None of the local KPU offices in the regencies and
municipalities have sent their tabulated legislative election
results to us," the chairman of KPUD Papua Marthen Ferry Kareth
said.

He said poll committee members had complained about
complicated procedures in counting the ballots, raising a
question as to whether they had undergone enough training to
carry out their jobs.

"The poll committee members found difficulties in filling in
the many forms required to report the vote counting results. The
procedure was much more complicated compared to the previous
election," Kareth said.

He said in some polling stations in remote areas, the vote
ccounting would start on Tuesday because voting started after dsk
and finished at midnight on Monday because election materials
came in late.

Kareth said most regental election commissions would send
their results to the provincial election commissions by facsimile
because many computers did not work properly.

"Only three regental election commissions across the province
sent the data through the internet," Kareth said.

Each provincial election commission has been given until April
14 to submit the results of vote counting to the KPU in Jakarta.

"That's why we will take the initiative by sending people to
take the results from regental election commissions whose
computers didn't work," he said.

Preliminary results in the province showed the Democratic
Party and the Prosperous Peace Party (PDS) in the lead, ahead of
the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and the Golkar Party,
the biggest polling parties in 1999.

The province reported on Monday election delays in 163 polling
stations located in remote areas, including the Jayawijaya
mountains, due to problems in transporting election materials.
These areas can only by air or on foot as there is no road
access.

Meanwhile, about 200 security guards who were deployed in
polling stations in Jayapura on Monday, staged a protest in front
of the Papua provincial KPU office on Tuesday, demanding their
payment.

Antara reported the guards claimed they had not received their
honorarium of Rp 40,000 (US$4.7) per day from the election
commission.

They also asked the commission whether they would be employed
during the presidential election on July 5.