Polling officials load ballot boxes into the back of a truck in Tasikmalaya district, West Java. (Antara Photo/Adeng Bustomi)

Jakarta. The General Election Commission, or KPU, will allow the use of collective revenue stamps to authorize letters of support for independent candidates after recently announcing all letters must include their own individual stamp.

The decision comes after outcry from election activists and independent candidate Jakarta Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama after a KPU regulation draft included a requirement for every letter of support to include a revenue stamp.

Revenue stamps, also known as materai, are a paid stamp issued by authorities to legalize documents. The stamps allow signed letters to be considered legal documents in court.

KPU Commissioner Hadar Nafis Gumay said stamped letters of support can be gathered collectively on a community level, rather than only on each individual letter.

“We still need authorization for every [letter of] support. That's why we still need the revenue stamps to legally confirm,” Hadar told reporters in Jakarta on Tuesday (19/04), as reported by Vivanews.

With this new regulation, independent candidate pairs for Jakarta gubernatorial election will only need around 250 revenue stamps at a cost of around Rp 1.5 million ($110) — a huge saving compared to a previous plan which said candidates needed around Rp 3 billion ($230,000) to authorize individual support.

At least 101 regions will hold the second round of simultaneous regional elections on Feb. 15, 2017, including the prestigious Jakarta gubernatorial election.