Indonesia has deployed 246,000 policemen to secure the presidential polls on Wednesday and delivered more than one million bottles of inks to polling booths, police and Electoral Commission said Tuesday.
National Police spokesman Nanan Soekarna said the security would be focused on the casting of votes and the delivering of the result of the polls to the electoral commission offices.
More than 176 million Indonesians were expected to cast their votes at over 450,000 polling stations nationwide, the electoral commission said.
Indonesia's recent legislative polls on April 9 has drawn dissatisfaction as over 49 million voters failed to cast their votes, drawing a suspicion that it was purposely designed, and riots on disputes over the result of the polls at many polling stations.
In remote Papua at the easternmost Indonesia, the police have also boosted security ahead of the poll by sending over 300 personnel following the attack of airport by rebels recently, another police spokesman Abubakar Nataprawira said.
As the country's Supreme Court on Monday approved the use of identity card for casting vote, as an effort to prevent the repeat of the failure of casting votes by millions of people, the number of voters could increase.
If the electoral commission could not facilitate them to vote because of limited supply of ballot papers, it might draw complaints.
So far, the commission has provided up to over 179 million ballot papers. But, there is still no clear figure on how much the rise of the figure. "We will be on guard for any possible condition which could disturb the security at the polling stations," said Soekarna.
The country has distributed 1,038,22 bottles inks to mark the fingers of voters at the polling stations from Aceh up to easternmost Papua in the country with over 17,500 islands, according to the commission.
Three Indonesian presidential candidates and their running mates are the incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate former central bank governor Boediono, incumbent Vice President Jusuf Kalla, who is the chairman of Golkar Party and his running mate former general Wiranto, and former president Megawati Soekarnoputri, who is the chairperson of the Indonesian Democratic Party of struggle (PDIP) and her running mate former major general Prabowo Subianto.
A second run-off would be held in September if there is not a single majority at the first round.
(Xinhua News Agency July 7, 2009)