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Ni Komang Erviani ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Denpasar   |  Thu, 04/09/2009 7:48 PM  |  Election 2009

A widespread mix-up of ballots has marred the legislative elections Thursday in Bali, as officials at polling stations in Denpasar municipality and seven other regencies experienced an early morning shock after finding out the ballots at their stations were actually designated for other constituencies.

Klungkung is the only regency that did not report such an incident.

“We haven’t received any report [of a mix-up] from Klungkung  yet. The mix-up occurred at eight out of nine election regions in the island,” Bali General Elections Commission (KPUD) head Lanang Perbawa Sukawati said Thursday afternoon.

He added as many as 10 polling stations had notified their respective regional election commissions of the problem. But he warned the number could increase.

“We are still counting and verifying the reports,” he added.

In polling station 19 in Sanur Kauh village, South Denpasar, officials found the available ballots were not designated for South Denpasar, but rather for East Denpasar.

Some 3 kilometers away, an even worse mix-up was found at polling station 19, Sanur subdistrict, South Denpasar.

Officials there found 187 of their ballots were actually meant for polling stations in East Java.

“After opening the seal [on the ballot bag] we proceeded with counting the ballots. We didn’t pay any attention to the details. Only after 20 voters had cast their votes did we realize the ballot papers were designated for East Java,” head of polling station 19, IB Anom Putra, said.

Polling station officials hurriedly substituted the East Java ballots with the station’s reserve ballots. The permissible number of reserve ballots at each station is 2 percent of the number of registered voters at that station.

Consequently, some polling stations that experienced ballot mix-ups had to request additional papers from other polling stations.

“The polling station officials had to do extra work to send additional papers,” Sukawati said.
He added the East Java ballots that had been marked by Bali voters would be treated as valid votes by the commission.

“The counting will be done based on the party and the number of legislative candidate ticked by the voters,” he said.

Bali Elections Supervisory Body (Panwaslu) head Wayan Juana regretted the ballot mix-up.
“It proves the General Elections Commission [KPU] hasn’t done its job in a thorough manner,” he said.