Jakarta – The General Elections Commission (KPU) has warned that millions of "ghost" voters could affect the July 5 presidential election.

After a month-long registration period, the commission has managed to remove only 1.4 million of an estimated five million ghost voters.

"Officials at the Village Elections Committees (PPSs) have worked steadily to identify non-existent voters and dropped them from the list, but time is not on our side," KPU Deputy Chairman Ramlan Surbakti told a media briefing here. "We need more time to further reduce the number of ghost voters." Mr Ramlan said he was disappointed with the result.

Ghost voters are those registered on the list of eligible voters although they may have already died, moved away, been jailed or are underage. Independent poll watchdogs such as the Rectors' Forum and the Economic and Social Research, Development and Education Institute have estimated that the figure stands at 2 per cent of eligible voters.

Mr Ramlan said ghost voters would cause an excess of ballot papers on Election Day. "Consequently, we have created new procedures to reject leftover ballot papers in anticipation of possible ballot rigging," he said.

On Election Day, members of Polling Station Committees would mark unpierced ballot papers with black markers and then keep them in sealed envelopes, he said.