Golkar declared poll winner<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): With complaints of election irregularities still
\nto be investigated, the National Elections Committee delivered
\nyesterday the final results of the May 29 general election and
\nendorsement by the three parties.<\/p>\n
Laughter, friendly discussion and applause was all that
\naccompanied the announcement by committee chairman Moch. Yogie
\nS.M. in an agreeable ending to two months of election violence.<\/p>\n
No eyebrows were raised at yesterday's announcement, but the
\nabsence was noted of the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI)
\nchairman Soerjadi, who is blamed for the party's poor
\nperformance.<\/p>\n
Golkar chairman Harmoko and the United Development Party (PPP)
\nchairman Ismail Hasan Metareum attended.<\/p>\n
PDI secretary-general Buttu R. Hutapea represented Soerjadi,
\nwho was chairing a House of Representatives plenary session, when
\nthe final results were announced.<\/p>\n
As predicted, Golkar maintained its firm grip, winning 325 of
\nthe 425 House seats with 84,187,907 votes.<\/p>\n
Golkar had a clean sweep of seats in Jambi, Bengkulu, Bali,
\nNorth Sulawesi and Southeast Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
It was the best performance ever by Golkar, which has won all
\nsix general elections held under the New Order since 1971. Golkar
\nwon the 1992 election with 282 House seats.<\/p>\n
The Moslem-oriented PPP also made big gains in this election,
\nwinning 89 House seats. Its best previous performance was in 1977
\nwhen it won 79 seats. It won only 62 seats in 1992.<\/p>\n
Yesterday's results confirmed that PDI -- which has finished
\nlast in the last six elections -- has scrapped in with the
\nminimum House representation of 11 seats.<\/p>\n
The last minute inclusion of Fatimah Achmad in North Sumatra
\nmeant that the House will not be forced to modify its internal
\nrules on decision making.<\/p>\n
The rules say that each party and the Armed Forces must be
\nrepresented in each of the House's 11 commissions.<\/p>\n
Provisional results before last Friday showed that the PDI had
\n10 seats, with Soerjadi and Buttu failing to be elected to the
\nHouse.<\/p>\n
Golkar then offered a vote trade-off to help the PDI increase
\nits seats so that House rules would not have to be changed. The
\ndeal fell through because vote trading is only allowed if it is
\nmade public before the election.<\/p>\n
An unusually antsy Fatimah, a House member since 1987, refused
\nto comment on her reelection. But Buttu tried to satisfy press
\nqueries.<\/p>\n
\"Our votes came from the masses, not from Golkar's charity.
\nShould Golkar have granted us votes, we would have welcome them.
\nBut in fact the offer did not materialize,\" Buttu said.<\/p>\n
He played down the PDI's tiny representation, saying the party
\nwould cooperate with other parties and the Armed Forces in the
\nHouse.<\/p>\n
\"Our 11-strong soccer team are set to battle it out in
\nSenayan,\" he joked in his impromptu speech after the results were
\nannounced.<\/p>\n
The House of Representatives is near Senayan sports stadium.<\/p>\n
Irregularities<\/p>\n
The PPP's endorsement of final results came only after an
\novernight leadership meeting. There were fears that the party
\nwould not endorse the results because of its allegations of
\nelectoral law violations.<\/p>\n
\"We reluctantly approved the results for the good of the
\ncountry's future... We have to apologize to our supporters who
\nmay be disappointed with this unpopular decision,\" Ismail said.<\/p>\n
In a statement read by Ismail, the party regretted that this
\nyear's election was tarnished by more violations and vote-rigging
\nby government officials than in past elections.<\/p>\n
\"Generally speaking, we consider the quality of this election
\nwas no better than the previous ones,\" he said. The PPP has
\ncompiled 984 cases of electoral law violations during the
\nelection.<\/p>\n
The party suggested that the government change the electoral
\nrules to guarantee democratic, fair and honest general elections
\nin future.<\/p>\n
Golkar chairman Harmoko contended the PPP's statement, saying
\nthat this election was an improvement because the three parties
\nhad reached consensus on campaign methods and that the election
\nhad generally been orderly.<\/p>\n
\"Riots that occurred during the election stages were purely
\ncrimes and had nothing to do with the general election's
\nquality,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Golkar said the high participation rate in the May 29 poll had
\nproved its worthiness.<\/p>\n
Yogie declared that 112,161,955 valid ballots had been cast;
\n89.9 percent of the country's 124.7 million registered voters.<\/p>\n
Despite its landslide victory, Golkar complained about the
\n1,572 election irregularities that it had discovered, and asked
\nthe Elections Supervision Committee to investigate them.<\/p>\n
The violations toll soared yesterday when Buttu gave Yogie a
\ndocument listing the PDI's 370 complaints of irregularities.
\n(aan\/amd)<\/p>\n
Photo -- Page 2<\/p>\n
Editorial -- Page 4<\/p>", "url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/golkar-declared-poll-winner-1447893297", "image": "" }, "sponsor": "Okusi Associates", "sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com" }