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Reballoting could compromise vote tallying process
The revote affecting voters in 29 provinces could potentially bring problems to the final tally for the 2014 legislative election at the national level, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has said
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he revote affecting voters in 29 provinces could potentially bring problems to the final tally for the 2014 legislative election at the national level, the General Elections Commission (KPU) has said.
KPU commissioner Arief Budiman said on Tuesday that many polling stations in a number of provinces were yet to hold revotes although the deadline was April 23.
'Of course the revote will bring problems to final count,' he told reporters at the KPU's headquarters in Central Jakarta. 'Our target is April 23 [for revotes in all provinces to be completed], let's see what happens.'
Arief was referring to the revote in Sampang, Madura, which could may not take place with no one willing to serve as the Polling Station Working Committee [KPPS] officers.
The revotes in 19 polling stations in two subdistricts in Sampang were initially scheduled for last weekend but no one was willing to work as KPPS officers in two polling stations in Robatal subdistrict, while all the KPPS officers in 17 polling stations in Ketapang subdistrict abruptly resigned as they did not feel safe about overseeing the process.
Arief said that there was nothing the KPU could do to anticipate this turn of events.
'We don't have any choice because we couldn't recruit KPPS officers from other villages. This is not permitted under the law,' he said.
There are 5,056 voters in the final voter list (DPT) in the two subdistricts.
The Sampang Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) recommended revotes for the two subdistricts after finding evidence of fraud and irregularities at 19 polling stations.
Overall, there are 929 polling stations in 132 regencies in 29 provinces that have to carry out revotes.
Besides Sampang, South Nias Regency in North Sumatra is yet to conduct the revotes. The revotes in 35 polling stations in the regency are scheduled for April 26, three days after the deadline, due to logistical problems.
The revotes had to be conducted after it was found that hundreds of ballots at several polling stations had been perforated for House of Representatives' candidates from the Gerindra Party and the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) when they were handed out to voters.
KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik said that the commission was still working hard to ensure that the revotes could all take place before the April 23 deadline.
'We have coordinated with the KPU provincial branches,' he said. 'There needs to be coordination among the local government, the local figures, the political parties, the police, the KPU and the Panwaslu.'
Husni added that the KPU had not decided what measures it would take if the revotes were not carried out.
'The final vote tally could be incomplete, which is a real possibility,' he said.
