T

hree months before the legislative election, the General Elections Commission (KPU) is facing mounting logistical problems.

KPU logistics division chief Boradi said on Thursday that he had received reports of hundreds of ballot boxes being destroyed by recent flooding in Manado, North Sulawesi.

The report came amid an allegation by the Election Supervisory Committee (Bawaslu) that substandard materials were being used by the KPU in its preparations for the election.

Boradi said that the Jan. 15 flooding in Manado destroyed many ballot boxes.

'€œSeveral hundred ballot boxes were destroyed. A lot of other equipment, such as desktop computers were also destroyed in the flooding.'€

Boradi said the election body had yet to determine the financial losses resulting from the disaster and how much it would have to spend to replace the equipment.

'€œWe haven'€™t allocated any funds but we could use some of the existing budget. If money from the North Sulawesi Election Commission is not enough then we will disburse additional funds,'€ Boradi said.

Meanwhile on Thursday, Bawaslu issued a statement saying it suspected that a number of irregularities had taken place in preparing for the 2014 legislative election, especially in the procurement of ballot boxes.

Bawaslu said the KPU had ordered ballot boxes made from cardboard instead of aluminum, and that it had found thousands of cardboard ballot boxes in 22 provinces that did not meet standard specifications.

The ballot boxes were of different sizes, colors and quality.

Some resembled oversize cigarette packets with plastic padlocks that would be easy to break open.

Bawaslu commissioner Daniel Zuchron said substandard ballot boxes would put the election at risk.

The KPU has defended its decision, saying that all ballot boxes met specifications.

Boradi said that cardboard boxes would be coated with water-resistant material.

He also ensured that the use of plastic padlocks would not create problems.

'€œIt won'€™t be a problem. Don'€™t assume that people will do bad things. People would attempt to cheat anyway even if we used gold padlocks. It all depends on the implementation of the election,'€ he said.

According to Boradi, logistical preparations were well under way, with the 11 appointed printing companies ready to begin printing ballot papers.

'€œWe just submitted the master copy [of the ballots to the printing companies] last night. They will print the master and the result will be brought here for us to check whether the logos of the parties are correct as well as whether the names of the legislative candidates are correct,'€ he said.

Boradi added that validation would take three days at the most and that the KPU expected the ballot papers to arrive in all provinces by mid-March at the latest.