Red-eyed ballot counters work past deadlines

Red-eyed ballot counters work past deadlines

JAKARTA (JP): Thursday was the deadline for ballot counting
results at every district polling committee (PPK) but in a number
of districts the counting process was still far from finished.

According to the official schedule set by the General
Elections Commission (KPU), ballot counting at PPK level should
have finished on Thursday. June 14 is the deadline for the
counting process at mayoralty level. Final results for city
should be completed by June 17 before reaching the National
Election Committee by June 21. Provisional results have been
expected much earlier, raising concerns particularly among
political parties, the public and observers.

The process was not yet completed even at subdistrict polling
committees such as the Kebon Sirih subdistrict committee in
Central Jakarta.

Fatigue was obvious among faces of members of the Tanah Abang
district committee in Central Jakarta, who were rechecking ballot
results of seven subdistricts. Rechecking is done by reading out
loud the counting sheets of every subdistrict then having them
recounted by all committee members. Members represent all parties
registered in the district plus government representatives.

The committee members, along with security guards, guard
ballot boxes around the clock against possibilities of vote-
rigging.

"That's why errors could not be hindered, and the columns on
the counting sheets are so small that sometimes we fill the
column with wrong data," said Zuardi, a red-eyed committee
member.

"In the case of such mistakes, we should recheck or even
repeat the counting," he said. Zuardi said that after more than
two hours, committee members had only completed rechecking
results from two of the seven subdistricts.

If reports from the subdistricts were complete, the earliest
the Tanah Abang district committee would have completed its job
would have been late Thursday.

When asked whether they could meet the deadline, another
committee member, Suherman, just smiled.

"I am not sure because data from Kebon Melati subdistrict has
not been sent," he told The Jakarta Post during a break. The
recounting process was witnessed by members of poll observers and
several parties' cadres in line with the rule. Difficulties were
raised when members of the committee were missing.

The district committee also rechecks the number of invalid
ballots at all subdistrict committees.

The counting sheet of the district committee is then sent to
the Mayoralty Election Committees along with the ballot boxes,
ballot papers and other poll equipment.

Suherman was surprised upon knowing that the city
administration had preliminary results based on the data of each
district, which was said to be for "internal purposes" of the
administration.

Efforts of at least one subdistrict committee was rejected by
the district committee. Muchlis, a member of the Kebon Sirih
subdistrict, was sent back by the Menteng district committee
because there were too many erase marks and crosses on the
counting sheet. Muchlis had to request another sheet from the
Central Jakarta Mayoralty Elections Committee, but sheets there
ran out so another member was sent to get one from the Provincial
Election Committee.

Meanwhile at the Joint Operations Media Center (JOMC), helping
to issue reliable though unofficial results of the General
Elections Commission, a 150-strong workforce of mostly
university students were seen on Thursday morning working 150
telephone lines and jotting down the latest election results.

On the first floor of the Hotel Aryaduta Jakarta the workers
immediately handed filled in forms to helpers manning the
center's computer network system and into which information was
fed through 100 computers.

Each form has a pin code written on the right-hand side by the
helper who takes the call. The code indicates the province from
which the information came from.

JOMC operational director Ross Mackay added Thursday that data
was being faxed or phoned in by about 75 percent of the 4,000
district polling committees (PPK) nationwide.

The remaining 25 percent which did not have phone lines,
relayed the information via radio to offices of the regional
elections committees (PPD II), who then phoned or faxed the data
to JOMC, he said.

The 400 helpers who work three shifts daily keep the world
updated with reliable, but unofficial election results, with
technical help from 20 members of the Australian General
Elections Commission and the International Foundation for
Election Systems (IFES) of the US, Mackay said.

He stressed JOMC was right on schedule, in terms of providing
"early and indicative" results of the June 7 election.

"The General Elections Commission (KPU) here gave us till June
10 to provide early, indicative results," Mackay said.

As of 12:14 p.m. on June 10, at least 11 percent of the votes
cast by approximately 100 million people on June 7 were tallied.

On the perceived slow process of counting Mackay said,
subdistrict election offices had to gather forms from 320,000
polling stations -- each form representing the voice of some 400
voters -- and verify the forms before submitting results to
district election committees.

"The JOMC instead receives information already worked on by
the 4,000 district election committees... each form we receive,
represents some 30,000 voters". (ind/ylt)