Tender winners unable to print ballots
Moch. N. Kurniawan and Fabiola Desy Unidjaja, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Some winners of the General Elections Commission (KPU)'s ballot paper printing project were unable to fulfill their obligations, the commission said on Wednesday.
The KPU official in charge of the ballot paper tender, Mulyana W. Kusumah, said 11 tender winners had requested Temprina Media Grafika and the State Printing Company (PNRI) take over some of the printing work.
"The KPU plans to allow the tender winners (unable to fulfill their obligations) to subcontract the jobs to companies that passed the pre-qualification screening," Mulyana said.
"We might also allow those companies to merge their printing jobs with other firms."
Eighteen firms won the KPU ballot paper tender.
As of Wednesday evening, Mulyana said he had not yet received the names of the firms that would subcontract the printing work.
Temprina and firm, Pundi Mas Putra Indojaya, both admitted they had been asked to take over printing work.
A source told The Jakarta Post one company based in Medan and one in Jakarta had expressed their inability to print the ballot papers allotted to them.
Earlier, a tax document obtained by the Post stated that at least three companies -- JT, WLP, JAI -- were in dubious financial positions.
The inability of tender winners to print allotted ballot papers could cause further delays in election preparations, which have already faced problems after ballot box tender winners failed to meet their targets.
The KPU will print some 660 million ballot papers that must reach regencies and municipalities by March 15 and poll stations by March 25.
In a related development, the government announced a high- powered team of officials would visit at least 20 of 32 provinces across the country for final checking on general election preparations.
The team, led by Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno, will leave the capital on Feb. 27 and return on March 9.
The campaign period for the April 5 legislative election will run from March 11 through April 1.
"Should there be something wrong, we will still have an extra day to solve the problem or find alternatives," Hari said on Wednesday after attending a limited Cabinet meeting at the State Palace.
The team would inspect the distribution of ballot boxes and papers across the country and hold discussions with regional leaders to check on their readiness for the elections.
It will consist of National Police Chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar, Indonesian Military chief Gen. Endriartono Sutarto, State Secretary Bambang Kesowo, National Intelligence Agency chief Hendropriyono, KPU chairman Nazaruddin Syamsudin, and Elections Supervisory Committee chief Komaruddin Hidayat.
Hari said the team would visit areas prone to trouble, such as Aceh, Papua and North Maluku.
"We've selected the provinces randomly, but we will consider the number of districts and other aspects when we conduct the inspection," he said.
In the Cabinet meeting, President Megawati Soekarnoputri stressed regional administrations should support the elections to ensure everything would go as planned, Hari said.
Indonesia will hold the legislative election on April 5 and the presidential election on July 5, with possible a runoff on Sept. 20.