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Thousands of ballots in West Sulawesi damaged
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A worker sorts and folds ballot papers at the Gorontalo General Elections Commission (KPU Gorontalo) office on Jan. 27. As many as 127, 709 voters are registered for the Feb. 15 Gorontalo gubernatorial election. (The Jakarta Post/Syamsul Huda M.Suhari)
T
he West Sulawesi General Elections Commission (KPU West Sulawesi) has to print more ballot papers as thousands of ballots for the gubernatorial election in the province were found to be damaged.
“KPU offices in several regencies have reported damaged ballots, such as Polewali Mandar, which has 900 damaged ballots. We are still waiting for reports from all KPUs to count the total number of replacement ballots needed,” KPU West Sulawesi head Adi Arwan said on Thursday.
“Hopefully, today [Thursday], all reports can be submitted so we can immediately make reports and propose the printing of additional ballots,” said Adi.
Apart from damaged ballots, weather also poses a challenge to the KPU West Sulawesi and KPU offices in regencies are facing problems in distributing election materials. Several areas are prone to natural disasters, such as flooding and landslides, especially during the current rainy season.
Several areas are isolated and located in mountainous areas, in which transportation access to the areas is limited.
As many as 841,091 voters will exercise their right to vote in the Feb. 15 election in the province. They live in six regencies, namely Central Mamuju, Majene, Mamasa, Mamuju, North Mamuju and Polewali Mandar (Polman).
It will be the third regional election since West Sulawesi province was established. Three candidate pairs running in the gubernatorial election comprise Suhardi Duka-Kalma Katta, Ali Baal Masdar-Enny Anggraeni Anwar and Salim S Mengga-Hasanuddin Mas'ud. (ebf)
