Robert Go, Jakarta – With a month to go before the July 5 presidential vote, questions have arisen over whether the General Elections Commission (KPU) is up to the task, given its series of embarrassing bungles in April's parliamentary polls.

The list of KPU's problems from two months ago is long. Delays in the printing and delivery of ballot papers, as well as the late arrival of other supplies, forced some regions to hold the recent polls at a later date.

Elections watchdog Panwaslu recommended a re-vote for 815 polling stations and recounts at 2,009 following allegations of tampering and electoral-law violations. Some 10.5 million votes, out of the 124 million that were cast, were deemed invalid. Critics said that the high percentage meant KPU should have devoted more resources to making sure people knew how to vote properly.

The commission bought aluminium ballot boxes, at higher costs than wooden ones, saying that it expected to use them over a number of years. Reports have emerged that the boxes were poorly constructed and a large number had to be replaced.

But observers said that despite KPU's gaffes, it did well enough in April and should do better next month. For one thing, the presidential vote will be much smaller in scale and an easier job for the commission to tackle. And yes, there are also expectations that the KPU has learned from past mistakes and will not repeat them.

An international consultant working on the elections said: "July will be a different ball game altogether. The hope is for a simpler and smoother process."

There are several key differences between April and July. The coming election will still be nationwide but, instead of 660 million ballot papers, the KPU needs to worry about only a quarter of that number.

There were 24 political parties contesting in April, but next month, voters will choose from only five pairs of candidates.

Ballot boxes, with the exception of those broken previously, are already in place, so there will be no need to mobilise thousands of delivery vehicles to get them to polling stations.

A longer run-up period to the presidential election means the KPU will have more time to let people know about it and tell them how to cast their votes properly.

There is also more time to educate its own staff in the regions about how the election day will progress.

Observers said, however, that some basic issues such as transparency of KPU's decisions remain and should be addressed. After a meeting last week with printing companies to discuss ballot papers for July, KPU member Hamid Awaluddin declined to disclose how much the commission and taxpayers are paying for the job.

This, despite the KPU's own pledges for transparency in its procurement procedures, and the fact that several companies that printed ballot papers for April's election vote had said that they earned large profits of as much as one US cent (S$0.17) per page.

The international consultant said: "There is formal transparency with the KPU, but there is a lack of access to the reasoning for some of its decisions."