Yuli Tri Suwarni and Syofiardi Bachyul Jb, Bandung, Padang – Regional general election commissions (KPUDs) are concerned with the new way to vote in which voters have to tick instead of punch the ballot.

The Bandung KPUD, for example, conducted various simulations and found that some 30 percent of the votes would be void as many voters still punched the ballot.

The legislative election is slated for April 9, while the presidential election is scheduled for July 8. Bandung KPUD head, Heri Sapari, said that from the dozens of simulations held in Bandung, the invalid ballot totals reached 30 percent.

"Most voters preferred to punch the ballot because they didn't know about the new way," he said. "Voters were already used to the old system of punching."

In the Mentawai Islands regency in West Sumatra, the KPUD is concerned about the high illiteracy rate in the regency.

"There are still illiterate people on Siberut and Sipora Islands," Mentawai Islands KPUD chief Bastian Sirirui said.

"These voters cannot differentiate between candidate's names. They will also find it difficult to tick the ballot paper because they are not used to holding pens."

There will only be a list of the candidate's names on the ballot papers, with no accompanying pictures. "Voters will have a hard time locating candidates they know because there will be no pictures."

Bastian said such conditions made disseminating information on the new changes difficult, especially in the remote areas in the middle of the islands.

"The problem is that the terrain is very difficult and it takes time to reach our destinations," he said. "Not to mention that we have yet to receive any funds for disseminating the general election procedures."

It takes three days to reach a village on the western coast of Siberut Island, while high waves until April make it dangerous to go there.

There are 44,700 registered voters in Mentawai, with 20,000 voters living in remote villages. From the West Sumatra provincial capital of Padang, it takes at least 10 hours by ship to reach Mentawai.

In addition to voters not getting used to the new voting procedure, Heri was also worried about the possibility of low voter turnout in Bandung.

Bandung has 1,635,347 registered voters who can vote at 5,457 polling stations across the provincial capital city of West Java.

The trend of low voter turnout was visible during the West Java gubernatorial election and the Bandung mayoral elections.

"In the 2004 general election, voter turnout still reached 85 percent," Heri said. "The gubernatorial election in April had only 74 percent turnout and the Bandung mayoral election in August had 69 percent turnout."

Heri said that voter turnout in Bandung was still better than other regions, which have had a turnout as low as 50 percent.

"However, if we consider the figures with those of void ballots, it seems valid ballots will only be around 50 percent of registered voters," he said.

"We are still working to disseminate the new voting procedure despite the fact that we have yet to get our funding of Rp 1 billion (US$88,300)."