T

he General Elections Commission (KPU) has been warned of a logistical fiasco in the upcoming general election following reports of missing voting booths and ballot boxes in several regions, in addition to complaints of insufficient logistics in other regions.

'The regions that reported insufficient and missing logistics are Jayapura in Papua, Southeast Sulawesi and Maluku,' KPU logistics head Boradi said here on Friday.

According to Boradi, election logistics in Maluku were insufficient as new regencies had been established in the province. Meanwhile, in Papua, the missing ballot boxes were apparently illegally sold.

'The KPU rented a warehouse there [in Jayapura], but we haven't paid the rent for one year. Because of that, the owner of the warehouse decided to sell the ballot boxes [stored inside the warehouse],' he said.

Boradi claimed it was difficult for the KPU to access money from its annual budget. 'We're still renting offices [in some regions],' he said.

He added that he had not received any official reports from KPU officials in Medan, North Sumatra, regarding missing logistics in the region.

The commission's branch in Medan reported that 8,000 voting booths and 9,000 ballot boxes stored inside warehouses were missing. KPU officials in Medan reported the incident to the police on Monday.

The ballot boxes and voting booths were used during the North Sumatra gubernatorial election last year and the KPU planned to use them again for the 2014 election.

In response to the potential logistics fiasco, Association for Elections and Democracy (Perludem) executive director Titi Anggraini questioned the KPU's credibility in ensuring the elections went smoothly.

'Why do they only know about the missing 8,000 boxes now, as 8,000 is not a small number?' she said.

The KPU should take immediate measures as these problems would hamper the country's democratic process, said Titi.

'The KPU has to respond immediately as the election is only a few months away,' she said. 'It must investigate the core of the case and why it has only been able to detect the missing logistics recently.'

People's Conscience (Hanura) Party central executive board head Yurmaini Sakur said the KPU should coordinate with respective regional branches to deal with the problem.

'The regional KPUs should report the cases to the Election Supervisory Committee [Bawaslu] for it to take action,' she said.

'Don't let problems plaguing the 2009 election, such as missing votes or ballot rigging, happen again.'

Boradi said it would be difficult for the KPU to prevent such things from happening again. 'It's difficult as we don't have warehouses. There are also no guards,' he added.

KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik, meanwhile, said the commission had not considered replacing the missing logistics as it was still hoping law enforcement officers would to be able to find them.

Should the logistics remain missing, the KPU could borrow logistics from other regions as a substitute, according to him.

Despite the problems, Boradi said it would not affect the commission's budget for 2014, which is capped at Rp 15.4 trillion (US$1.26 billion). He was optimistic the KPU's spending would not exceed its annual budget as it had planned to cut corners in some areas related to the election process.

According to Boradi, the KPU would use ballot boxes from fiber, instead of the usual aluminum boxes, in order to cut corners so that the election process could proceed smoothly throughout the country.

Boradi said the material was much cheaper than aluminum, with the former costing roughly Rp 80,000 per box compared to Rp 350,000 for one aluminum box.

Husni said the fiber boxes were preferable as they were disposable and would reduce the high transportation costs of aluminum boxes from the regions to the KPU.