Election monitors sought for areas prone to conflict<\/p>\n
Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The two presidential candidates were told on Tuesday to provide
\nmore monitors to witness ballot counting in areas considered to
\nbe vulnerable to political clashes.<\/p>\n
Lawyers for the Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu)
\nsaid the presence of monitors from both the Megawati
\nSoekarnoputri and Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono camps would ensure
\ntransparency and prevent conflicts over election results.<\/p>\n
\"The two factions will be going all out to win the election
\nrunoff. Conflicts may arise after the vote count in those areas
\nwhere the number of rival supporters are comparable,\" said
\nBambang Wijayanto, a lawyer for the committee.<\/p>\n
He made the call during a meeting between the committee, the
\nConstitutional Court, the General Elections Commission (KPU) and
\nthe Megawati and Susilo campaign teams.<\/p>\n
Bambang said the campaign teams should train their monitors
\nbefore sending them to these areas so that they would know what
\nto do during the vote count.<\/p>\n
He said that Panwaslu had identified the areas of concern
\nacross the country, and had offered this information to the
\ncampaign teams so that they could deploy witnesses there.<\/p>\n
The areas considered to be prone to political conflicts
\nincluded Surakarta, Pekalongan and Semarang in Central Java;
\nCirebon and Garut in West Java; Pasuruan and Surabaya in East
\nJava; Makassar in South Sulawesi; and Medan and Palembang in
\nSumatra, Bambang added.<\/p>\n
Gayus Lumbun, who chairs the legal team representing the
\nMegawati-Hasyim Muzadi ticket, said his camp would deploy
\nthousands of monitors to more than 500,000 polling stations
\nacross the nation.<\/p>\n
Hari Wicaksono, a lawyer for the Susilo-Jusuf Kalla ticket,
\nsaid his camp would assign one monitor per polling station as
\nwell as a number of monitors to witness the returning of counted
\nballot papers from the polling stations to the KPU offices in
\nJakarta.<\/p>\n
\"We have trained them,\" he added.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the Constitutional Court said it would settle any
\ndisputes related to the Sept. 20 election runoff within six days
\nafter Oct. 8.<\/p>\n
The KPU is scheduled to announce the final results of the
\nelection runoff on Oct. 5. The newly elected president will be
\nsworn in on Oct. 20.<\/p>\n
The two candidates are only given three days between Oct. 5
\nand 8 to file complaints over possible election disputes with the
\nConstitutional Court. Decisions in these cases will be delivered
\non Oct. 14 or Oct. 15.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/election-monitors-sought-for-areas-prone-to-conflict-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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