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Simulated election to help determine new ballot format
The national elections body is planning to conduct a string of voting simulations on proposed ballot formats to fix on the "simplest" one for the 2009 legislative poll
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The national elections body is planning to conduct a string of voting simulations on proposed ballot formats to fix on the "simplest" one for the 2009 legislative poll.
The simulations will take place by the end of this month in Aceh, Papua and East Java provinces, the General Elections Commission (KPU) announced.
"We want to know which ballot design potential voters think works best. The final format will be determined after the simulations," KPU member Sri Nuryanti told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
She said the planned simulations would serve as a dry run, helping the KPU to identify potential issues or problems which might occur ahead of the legislative elections in April 2009.
"We will use the public opinions we gather during these simulations to come up with the best format," she said.
The KPU had previously drafted 10 model paper ballots using both vertical and horizontal formats to accommodate all 38 political parties with their legislative candidates.
The number of models was then narrowed down to three after the KPU presented it to the government and the House of Representatives for their input.
However, the KPU has yet to decide on the best implement voters will use to mark the paper ballots.
The 2008 elections law says a ballot is considered valid if the voter marks a name, number or political party column on the ballot.
The law, which requires a numerical order system to designate legislative candidates, stipulates if a voter marks a party column, the vote will go to the chosen party and will be pooled to determine the number of legislative seats it secures. But if the candidate's column is marked instead, the vote would go to legislative aspirants.
The law tasks the KPU with designing suitable ballots.
There will be 38 political parties, in addition to four local parties in Aceh, competing in the legislative elections next year.
The parties have, however, applied different selection systems with many of them adopting the old numerical order mechanism, which only benefits candidates topping their legislative lists.
The House of Representatives is deliberating whether to change the elections law to allow parties to implement an open system to determine their representatives in the House.
The KPU further said the simulations would involve about 500 eligible voters in each of the three provinces selected for the exercise.
The results would be shared with the government and the House to determine the final model for the paper ballot.
Refly Harun, a senior researcher with the Centre for Electoral Reform (CETRO), criticized the simulations as "too late" as the candidates have already been campaigning for more than a month.
"Teaching voters how to cast ballot papers is the second key element in election preparation. Many votes become worthless because the ballots are wrongly marked," he said.
He said many voters were still unaware they would need to mark ballot papers using a pen.
In past elections, eligible voters were only required to punch through the picture of their chosen party.
Refly said the KPU should invite all levels of voters, including those from basic and more advanced educational backgrounds, to identify difficulties with the voting process in the field.
Another KPU member Abdul Azis said earlier his office would allot Rp 1.2 trillion (US$ 129 million) to print and distribute ballots to voters throughout the country.
