The damaged ballot papers will be destroyed and substituted with 3,388 freshly-printed ones, Rinaldi Khair from the KPU-Medan office told journalists here on Monday.
The printing process would take one day, he said, adding that the KPU-Medan office will substitute any more ballot papers that are found damaged.
The Medan city mayoral election, scheduled on December 9, 2020, will be contested by candidate pair number 02, Muhammad Bobby Afif Nasution-Aulia Rachman, and candidate pair number 01, Akhyar Nasution-Salman Alfarisi.
According to Khair, the distribution of ballot papers to all polling stations in the city would take five days, while the sorting process would require two days.
In view of the continued spread of the novel coronavirus disease, President Joko Widodo has again urged the home minister, police chief, and COVID-19 task force to prioritize COVID-19 handling on voting day.
"Less than two weeks from now, the voting day will have taken place. This must not disrupt our huge efforts to handle the novel coronavirus pandemic and to recover our economy," he stated at a meeting in Jakarta on Monday.
President Widodo has also highlighted the importance of strictly implementing the government's health protocols during the remaining days of campaigning and on voting day to prevent the emergence of new COVID-19 clusters.
COVID-19 initially struck the Chinese city of Wuhan at the end of 2019 and spread across the world, including to countries in the Asia-Pacific region.
Indonesia officially announced the country's first confirmed cases on March 2 this year.
The Indonesian government has consistently expressed confidence in the potential of COVID-19 vaccines for helping win the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic that has posed a serious threat to public health and the economy.
Over the past few months, the government has made all-out efforts to secure potential COVID-19 vaccines for Indonesians through bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
The government is also supporting research efforts towards developing the country's own COVID-19 vaccine, Merah Putih (Red and White), named after the colors of the national flag.
In addition, Indonesia is cooperating with China and the United Kingdom for the procurement and supply of COVID-19 vaccine candidates. (INE)
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EDITED BY INE
Translator: Nur ABS, Rahmad Nasution
Editor: Suharto
Copyright © ANTARA 2020
