Irawaty Wardany, Jakarta – The General Elections Commission (KPU) will on Tuesday begin distributing ballots for the legislative election, despite protests from political parties.

"We plan to begin the distribution (of ballots) on Tuesday for Papua, West Papua and West Nusa Tenggara provinces," KPU member Endang Sulatri said after a meeting Saturday with political parties for final validation of the ballots.

She said the ballots would be printed on Sunday before being sent the three remote provinces, two months ahead of election day on April 9.

The KPU, Endang added, was optimistic about completing all the election stages during the 62 days left before the polls.

At the meeting attended by representatives from 33 of 38 political parties eligible to contest the elections, protests were raised after the discovery of several "flaws" in the sample printouts of ballots.

"The background color of our party's logo is not this green," said Reform Star Party (PBR) representative Bambang Budiono.

"This (print) makes it look similar to the backgrounds of the United Development Party's (PPP) and the National Awakening Party's (PKB) logos."

He added the PBR would be upset if the commission did not fix the ballots before sending them to printing companies.

Similar protests were lodged by Idrus Marham from the Golkar Party and Idayani Oesman from the New Indonesia Party of Struggle (PPIB), who complained about the different font sizes used for candidates' names.

"How come some names look bigger than others? This could create the impression that the one with a bigger font is the candidate the voters should choose," Idrus said.

Idayani said the different font sizes would "psychologically influence" voters to choose candidates whose names were printed in a larger font.

"This will be unfavorable to other candidates whose names happen to be printed smaller," she added. The PKB's Zainul Munasikin also expressed objections over the printing of his party's logo on the ballots. "The stars are unclear; we can barely see the stars, which are our strength," he complained.

KPU member Andi Nurapati said that Saturday was the last chance for all the parties to make corrections to their logos on the ballots before they were printed and multiplied.

"If (party representatives) do not come tonight, the KPU will not be held responsible for any more mistakes relating to party logos on the ballots," she warned, adding that after the Saturday deadline, any errors on the ballots would be the responsibility of the printing companies.

However, she went on, the KPU had already established a team to monitor the printing process.

Commenting on the absence of Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) members at Saturday's event, Andi said it would not have a significant effect on the whole election process. "It's alright, the most important thing is the presence of representatives from the political parties," he said.