The Bali polling body said Monday there could be a delay in announcing the results of votes, due to bottlenecks in counting at the district level.
Bali General Elections Commission (KPUD) head I Ketut Sukawati Lanang Putra Prabawa said his office had scheduled vote counting at district level for April 10-15, at regency level for April 16-19, and at provincial level for April 20-24.
"But some districts in Denpasar municipality and Buleleng regency have large numbers of voting stations and the vote counting process is pooled at districts," he said.
"In the 2004 elections, the counting was done at the village level.
"The counting may be extended to April 18."
He added the KPUD was waiting for an official letter to be faxed from the General Elections Commission (KPU) on Monday, to be sent to all regional KPUDs throughout Bali.
"In Denpasar, each district has at least 350 voting stations," he said.
The provincial capital's four districts are South, East, North and West Denpasar.
"Given that there were 38 parties with 5,065 legislative candidates participating in these elections, those districts definitely need more time to count and tally the votes."
Prabawa added he supported extending the vote counting period to get a more accurate final count.
However, the KPUD will have to rearrange a recount schedule at the regional and provincial level to avoid further delays nationwide.
"The basic vote counting is actually at district level," he said.
"Therefore officials at regional and provincial KPUDs must be ready to give away their vote tallying schedules *to the districts*.
"The KPUD is postponing the start of vote counting to April 22 instead of April 20 as scheduled."
As of 5 p.m. on Monday (4 p.m. Jakarta time) the KPUD recorded the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) was still leading for House of Representatives seats with 38.7 percent, followed by the Golkar Party (21.93 percent) and the Democratic Party (12.72 percent).
For the Regional Representatives Council, I Wayan Sudirta is leading with 11.14 percent, followed by I Nengah Wiratha with 10.59 percent and I Gusti Nengah Kesuma Kelakan with 9.32 percent.
When asked about the possibility of holding vote reruns due to the huge number of irregularities during the April 9 elections, Prabawa said, "The chance is small."
"I heard the Bali Elections Supervisory Committee *Panwaslu* had recommended to the Elections Supervisory Body *Bawaslu* that we conduct revotes,"he said.
"We are open to such an option, but one important thing is that the Panwaslu must follow Law No. 10/2008 on General Elections, especially Article 219 on revotes and 220 on the revote procedure, to conduct the revotes."
Articles on revotes
Article 219 (1): Revotes can be done if vote tallying is invalidated by natural disasters or riots.
Article 219 (2): A revote must be conducted if vote tallying is illegal, or a polling committee official (KPPS) is proven guilty of giving guidance to cast a vote and/or deliberately damaging a ballot to invalidate it.
Article 220 (1): The KPPS recommends a revote.
Article 220 (2): The KPPS's recommendation must proceed to the poll district committee (PPK) and KPUD.
Article 220 (3): A revote must conducted within at least 10 days after the elections.
