Regions face poll delay: Cetro

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Bogor, West Java

The Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro) has warned of elections delays in some areas after the General Elections Commission (KPU) set a March 30 deadline for ballot papers to reach polling stations, five days behind the initial schedule.

"The new schedule for the printing and distribution of ballot papers only increases the possibility of elections delays in some areas," Cetro vice executive director Hadar N. Gumay said over the weekend on the sidelines of a two-day workshop for the press.

He suggested that the KPU prepare for belated polls in areas where ballot papers fail to arrive on time. The general election is scheduled to be held on April 5.

He said the KPU's repeated failure to meet the schedule for procuring elections materials cast doubt over whether the commission could hold the elections on time.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti announced on Saturday that some polling stations would receive their ballot papers on March 30, not March 25 as initially scheduled due to problems in the development of negative template film.

"We cannot sleep well with the current situation in the preparation for the elections," he said.

KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah did not rule out the possibility of holding the polls after April 5 in some areas, but said the KPU had not yet anticipated any elections delays.

"We have not thought about elections delays in any areas. However, delays may occur in a small number of areas if the materials fail to reach polling stations by April 5," he said.

He said ballot papers could arrive late in some 30 percent of the over 400 regencies and municipalities.

"It is very likely that some 30 percent of ballot papers will not reach regencies and municipalities by March 15 and polling stations by March 25, as initially scheduled," he said.

The new schedule set by the KPU for the printing of ballots is a best-case scenario, with printing firm Temprina Media Grafika saying it will be able to complete the printing of ballots for the election of House of Representatives and Regional Representative Council members in three days.

Another printing company, Pabelan, however, has said it will require 10 days to complete the printing.

Mulyana said that under the new timetable, the template for the ballot papers for the election of House of Representatives members in 69 electoral districts should be completed on Sunday, with the printing of the ballots taking place between Monday and Thursday.

The template of ballot papers for the election of Regional Representatives Council (DPD) members in 32 electoral districts is scheduled to be completed on Monday, so the printing of the ballots will start between Tuesday and Thursday, he said.

Ballots for the election of Provincial Legislature (DPRD I) members will be printed from March 3 to March 7, Mulyana added.

He said the template for ballot papers for the election of Regental Legislature (DPRD II) members would be completed on March 4, with the printing of ballots to begin on March 5.

The winners of the KPU tender to print ballots are to start distributing ballots to regencies and municipalities on March 4 or March 5. Mulyana said the final ballot distribution should take place on March 11 or March 12.

A contingency plan prepared by the KPU to cope with ballot delivery problems involves using the Indonesian Military to speed up the delivery to remote areas and those areas experiencing conflict.

Mulyana said that on Monday he would meet with Grafitec, one of two film printing firms hired by the KPU, to ask for a guarantee the firm would be able to complete the templates according to the commission's new timetable.

"If Grafitec cannot do it, we will either add new printing firms or ask the ballot paper printing firms to produce the templates themselves," he said.

He also said the KPU had identified four ballot paper printing companies that had subcontracted our planned to subcontract their printing jobs, which is not allowed.

"In these cases, the KPU cannot just terminate the contracts with the companies because we are racing against time. We must be wise in resolving this problem," he said.

The KPU has appointed 18 companies to print 660 million ballots for the April 5 elections.

The commission has encouraged those companies with limited capacity to ask for help from fellow tender winners instead of bringing in subcontractors.