Election volunteers now in 22 provinces<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The Independent Election Monitoring Committee
\n(KIPP) now has volunteers in 62 cities in 22 provinces, its
\nsecretary general, Mulyana W. Kusumah, said on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Mulyana told The Jakarta Post that he could not give the total
\nnumber of volunteers because registration was still in progress.<\/p>\n
In September, Mulyana told reporters that the committee, first
\nset up to monitor the 1997 elections, had 9,000 volunteers in 47
\ncities in 14 provinces.<\/p>\n
Ideally, Mulyana said, the committee would deploy around
\n300,000 volunteers to monitor polls in the country's 324
\nregencies.<\/p>\n
"There should be at least 100,000 monitors," he added.<\/p>\n
In easily accessed areas, he said, one volunteer could cover
\nfour to five polling stations by using, for example, a
\nmotorcycle, while in remote areas one volunteer per polling
\nstation was needed.<\/p>\n
Mulyana, a lecturer at University of Indonesia, said the
\ncommittee needed Rp 6 billion to monitor the polls in the
\ncountry's regencies in the upcoming election slated for June 7.<\/p>\n
Universities have also recently established independent
\nmonitoring networks. One of these watchdogs is the University
\nNetwork for a Free and Fair Election, established last month by
\nuniversities and colleges in several provinces.<\/p>\n
A similar network of universities and colleges will be
\nestablished soon, with its main objective to monitor the polls in
\nCentral Java.<\/p>\n
"KIPP welcomes the recent establishment of private poll
\nmonitoring groups because in the present relatively open
\npolitical situation the role of such bodies is important to
\ninstitutionalize democracy," the committee executives said in a
\nletter to the Post on Thursday.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Mulyana said that donors from Europe and the
\nUnited States Agency for International Development (USAID) had
\ncommitted an unspecified amount of funds to the committee.<\/p>\n
USAID is also enabling the committee to send six of its
\nvolunteers to the Philippines next week to join an apprenticeship
\nprogram with the Philippines National Movement for Free
\nElections.<\/p>\n
Mulyana said another party, the United States-based National
\nDemocratic Institute, was supplying KIPP the funds to establish
\nbranches and training centers, as well as providing technical
\nassistance to the committee.<\/p>\n
Training for monitors has begun in Jakarta and will soon
\ncontinue in areas outside the capital.<\/p>\n
All training sessions must be completed before March, to give
\nthe committee enough time to finalize preparations for the June 7
\npoll, Mulyana said.<\/p>\n
He added that while the draft of the new election bill
\nrecognizes private poll observers, more details would be needed
\nto ensure formal acceptance of the monitors.<\/p>\n
KIPPs establishment in 1996 was met with reluctance by the
\ngovernment, and while the committee was not banned, its presence
\nwas not paid attention to, he said.<\/p>\n
Mulyana said that the committee had already begun to monitor
\nthe deliberations in the House of Representatives on the new
\npolitical laws, including the bill on elections.<\/p>\n
Among its activities, KIPP has worked with other groups under
\nthe Consortium of National Legal Reform to draw up alternative
\ndrafts of the political bills.<\/p>\n
Further actions will be taken in line with the election
\nschedule, such as the monitoring of electorate registrations and
\nthe selection by election organizers of which political parties
\nwill be eligible to contest the polls, he said.<\/p>\n
Mulyana called on other monitoring networks to work with KIPP
\nin setting basic standards of what constitutes an election
\nviolation.<\/p>\n
The committee was founded by around 40 activists in March
\n1996, including Goenawan Mohamad, Nurcholish Madjid, Permadi,
\nAdnan Buyung Nasution and Mulyana. Lawyer Todung Mulya Lubis was
\nnot involved in founding the committee as reported on Thursday.
\n(01)<\/p>",
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