Adianto P. Simamora, THE JAKARTA POST, JAKARTA | Election 2009 | Mon, March 23 2009, 10:20 AM
Facing a logistical difficulties, and with less than three weeks before the legislative elections, the General Election Commission (KPU) has permitted the use of stickers to amend ballot papers printed incorrectly.
“We have sent a circulation letter around stating that KPUDs (Regional General Elections Commission offices) can amend misspelled candidate names using stickers, so they don’t need to return ballot papers to Jakarta,” KPU chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary said on the weekend.
“This also means we can save money,” he said.
The ballots, however, must be changed if there are mistakes on party logos, Abdul said.
The KPU is responsible for the production of more than 700 million ballot papers for the legislative elections, scheduled for April 9.
Some KPUDs, including Bandung, Lebak, Gorontalo and South Sumatra, have already used stickers.
“We are still adding up the total damaged ballot papers. Around 70,000 in Lebak will definitely need stickers,” KPU logistics officer Abdul Azis said.
Bandung KPUD has already amended almost 370,000 ballot papers to fix a numerical error in the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) box.
“We have informed PDI-P that we have had to use stickers,” KPU officer Apipudin said, as quoted by Antara state news.
So far, the KPU has missed three of its own deadlines for printing and distribution. But three days after its last deadline, the KPU was yet to announce when it expects distribution completed.
By regulation, all ballot papers should be in regencies at least 21 days before the elections.
This deadline was set in anticipation of distribution difficulties in many remote areas including in Papua, West Papua and Maluku.
The KPU and the Indonesian Military have signed an agreement to deliver ballot papers from
regencies in Papua to district and village levels.
Aside from the errors and logistics problems, the KPU also has yet to print ballot papers to be
used by the most recently registered voters.
Around 200,000 new voters, mainly in Central Java, have been registered in the final list announced early this month.
