By Mustaqim AdamrahSource : The Jakarta Post
With the Jakarta gubernatorial election approaching, the Jakarta Elections Commission has announced it has finished 95 percent of the logistical preparations needed for polling day.
But the commission has said some of the ballot papers needed for the Aug. 8 election are defective.
The commission's deputy logistics task force head, Dolvi Ngantung, said Thursday the commission had been distributing the necessities for polling over the past two weeks.
Logistical preparations include sending out ballot papers, ballot seals, ballot boxes, election booths, ink and voter IDs.
""Actually, we have until next Monday, based on the schedule, to distribute all logistics down to Jakarta's subdistrict level,"" Dolvi told reporters at the commission headquarters.
""But the commission has a policy of shortening the period the distribution must be complete by to around Aug. 2 or 3,"" he said.
Dolvi said the commission could then use the remaining days to deal with any defects in essential election supplies.
""Next, the commission (can) retrieve the faulty property after it's scanned, and the supplying company will replace them with new ones still in good shape,"" he said.
Thousands of ballot papers have already been reported to be defective.
Commission secretary Muflizar said the number of faulty ballot papers was ""insignificant"".
""Flaws like tears on ballot papers or folded ballot papers are common human errors,"" he said.
""And the number of faulty ballot papers has only reached the hundreds, far less than the commission has provided for the election,"" he said.
The commission has provided enough ballots for all 5.7 million voters, plus an excess 2.5 percent, bringing the total to 5.84 million ballot papers.
Muflizar said it was important to retrieve and replace the faulty papers.
On Wednesday, the election committee in Senen district, Central Jakarta, found 750 defective ballot papers, committee chairman Dilah told Tempointeraktif.
The flaws included broken ballot paper seals, holes, tears, ink splashes and imperfect colors.
In addition, more than 2,000 ballot papers sent to Kepulauan Seribu were flawed, Dolvi said.
""The supplier has replaced those faulty ballot papers with new ones, and we have sent them to the regency,"" he said.
Dolvi said the ballot paper supplier was PT Pura Dewata Lestari, a company based in Kudus, Central Java.
Muflizar said there would be 11,253 polling posts in 267 subdistricts on Aug. 8.
Each post will be operational from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. and will contain, two tools for punching ballots, three pillows for punching ballot papers on, one ballot template for the visually impaired, two bottles of ink, a set of ballot papers and two polling booths.
Two public order officers and a number of representatives of the 19 bodies overseeing the election will monitor voting at each post.
In addition, registered voters will receive their IDs from local community heads between Saturday and Tuesday.
The commission has also prepared special booths to be placed inside state prisons.
""There will be two booths in Cipinang penitentiary, East Jakarta, and two in Salemba penitentiary, Central Jakarta,"" Muflizar said.
Jakarta Police plan to send out 54,000 personnel to keep the peace on election day.
City police spokesman Sr. Comr. I Ketut Untung Yoga Ana said Friday the city police had already used 36,000 personnel to keep order during campaigning between July 22 and August 3.
One police officer will be assigned to patrol three polling posts in the same area, backed up by a squad of at least seven policemen on mobile patrol watching over an area of seven or eight polling posts.
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