Indonesian authorities cooperative: EU observer<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): With the country looking forward to what most
\npeople hope will be the most democratic elections ever, the
\nIndonesian authorities have been cooperative with local and
\ninternational observers in their efforts to ensure these hopes
\nare realized, said a European Union (EU) official.<\/p>\n
John Gwyn Morgan, executive coordinator of the EU Election
\nObservation Unit, said on Thursday foreign observers had the
\nfreedom they needed to closely monitor all stages of this year's
\nelections.<\/p>\n
"I've not found anything except full cooperation from the
\nIndonesian authorities, who have let our observers monitor the
\nelection stages anywhere," he told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
"We have an agreement with the government and the General
\nElections Commission (KPU), but our observers are granted freedom
\nto go anywhere during the election campaign, to closely monitor
\nthe polling booths on the election day and to follow the counting
\nof the votes as well as the transfer of the votes from villages
\nto the district sections," he said.<\/p>\n
He said the EU will deploy 130 observers to 14 provinces,
\nincluding Jakarta. The EU will not send observers to monitor
\nvoting and ballot-counting in the troubled regions of Aceh, East
\nTimor and Irian Jaya.<\/p>\n
"We have been advised by the United Nations not to go to the
\ntroubled regions, especially East Timor."<\/p>\n
"We have no other choices but to comply with the UN
\nsuggestion," he said.<\/p>\n
However, Morgan insisted that the EU's absence would not mean
\nit excluded those three regions from its monitoring program.<\/p>\n
"We'll cooperate with other international observers and work
\nclosely with local Indonesian observers to fill in the gaps,
\nespecially in open centers and rural areas," he said.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, the official Elections Supervisory Committee on
\nThursday announced "indications" of alleged misuse of government
\nfunds and facilities, as well as bureaucrats' partiality, in the
\npre-election period. The committee urged Golkar Party and the
\nPeople's Sovereignty Party (PDR), which have been targets of the
\naccusations, to positively respond to the report and make itself
\naccountable to the public.<\/p>\n
"Those under public scrutiny should not see critical reports
\nas slander," it said in a statement. "Terrorizing people who
\nsupply information on alleged breaches of election laws is
\nagainst the commitment to creating a new political order."<\/p>\n
Meanwhile coordinator of the University Network for Free
\nElections (Unfrel) Todung Mulya Lubis said Thursday that some
\n130,000 volunteers of the body might lose their voting rights as
\nelection committee officials did not know about a ruling allowing
\nvolunteers to cast their votes at any polling station.<\/p>\n
"KPU has actually issued the ruling, but doubted that the
\npolling committees at provincial and regional levels have copies
\nof it at hand," he said.<\/p>\n
In Mataram, West Nusa Tenggara, a private research team of the
\nrespected Jakarta-based LP3ES reported discrepancies between the
\nnumber of voters at villages, subdistricts and districts and the
\nfigures at the provincial elections committee.<\/p>\n
Suhardi Surjadi, the head of the team, said the subdistrict
\noffice of Monjok in Mataram town registered 9,570 voters, while
\nthere were only 9,556 voters from the subdistrict registered at
\nthe district office. (imn\/edt\/49)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/indonesian-authorities-cooperative-eu-observer-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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