Telkom promises faster foolproof vote counting

JAKARTA (JP): The state-owned PT Telkom has invested Rp 2.1 billion ($875,000) in a facility that promises to speed up the tallying of votes in next month's general election.

The facility, called TelkomNet, will link 40 cities in the country with a digital data communications system, director Dadad Kustiwa told reporters yesterday.

"This year's telecommunications facility for the election will be quicker, more accurate and reliable," he said.

The digital system, serving data, picture and voice transmissions, would cut the counting period to just one day.

This was compared with three days needed in the 1992 election.

Any rigging during the transmission would be discovered because the election organizers would also do manual counting, he said.

Telkom has also prepared fixed-line telephones, facsimiles and telex services in 2,462 districts, or 63 percent of all districts, Kustiwa said.

"TelkomNet will be the major channel of the information system during the counting process. Data from the country's 27 provinces will be sent to the General Election Institute in Jakarta as the valid data," he said.

The flow of data would begin the moment a voter goes into a polling booth. Data will be first compiled at each subdistrict office, and then passed on to district offices, regencies and provincial administrations, he said.

Data between district and provincial election committees would be transmitted mostly by facsimile, except those in Kalimantan and East Timor which would use telex, he said. But data from the provincial committees to Jakarta would be sent through TelkomNet.

Telkom would utilize the fiber optic communication system, small aperture terminals and digital microwave, he said.

In 1992, data dispatch mostly relied on radio communications operated by the Armed Forces and local administration offices.

"This year's election will rely on TelkomNet," he said, adding that Telkom would deploy 4,046 employees to support the election.

TelkomNet had a backbone linking 40 cities in Indonesia controlled by a system called Network Management System (NMS).

NMS would monitor any network disruption. (icn)