Official caught piercing ballots<\/p>\n
Multa Fidrus, The Jakarta Post, Tangerang<\/p>\n
A joke is a very serious thing, says English poet Charles
\nChurchill in his work The Ghost, a truism that has been learned
\nthe hard way by Syarifudin, a local election administrator in
\nJatiuwung subdistrict, Tangerang.<\/p>\n
His joke was to order holes to be punched in the picture on
\nthe ballot papers of one of the 47 candidates standing in Banten
\nfor the Regional Representatives Council (DPD) before Monday's
\nlegislative election. However, his supposed jest was taken
\nseriously by Muhamad Nuh, whose job it is to sort the ballot
\npapers. In fact, the joke resulted in a total of 65 ballot papers
\nbeing declared invalid.<\/p>\n
The two were questioned by the Tangerang General Elections
\nCommittee over the weekend. Committee member Ibnu Jandi said that
\nthe poll organizer had yet to decide on whether the two should be
\npunished.<\/p>\n
\"We seized all the invalid ballot papers. We will decide on
\nwhether to punish them after we talk to all the relevant
\nparties,\" he said.<\/p>\n
DPD candidate Arwan Simanjuntak, whose picture was perforated
\nby Nuh, was not present during the questioning.<\/p>\n
The invalid ballot papers were discovered by another sorting
\nofficer, Hendra, last Thursday. He later reported what he had
\nfound to elections administrator Dede Suhendar, who passed on the
\ninformation to the subdistrict chief, Zaenudin.<\/p>\n
All subdistrict officers and electoral administrators were
\ngathered together on Friday by Zaenudin. During the meeting, Nuh
\nadmitted that he had punched a hole in Arwan's picture in the
\nballot papers. He claimed he was ordered to do so by Syarifudin.<\/p>\n
Zaenudin met with Syarifudin separately on Saturday and the
\nlatter claimed tearfully that he had only been joking when he
\ntold Nuh to perforate the ballot papers.<\/p>\n
\"It was a joke. I swear to God I didn't mean to order him to
\npunch holes in the ballot papers,\" he said.<\/p>\n
According to Syarifudin, the idea had occurred to him as Nuh
\nwas a great supporter of Arwan and had been busy putting up Arwan
\nposters on the streets.<\/p>\n
However, he denied allegations that he had been asked by Arwan
\nto order the latter's picture to be perforated on the ballot
\npapers. \"He never asked me to do that. I didn't get any money
\nfrom him either.\"<\/p>\n
Syarifudin is Arwan's secretary in the Tangerang branch of the
\nSmall and Medium Enterprises Communications Forum (FKPKMI).<\/p>\n
Article 140 of the Election Law only provides that a person
\nwho deliberately causes another to lose votes or adds to\/reduces
\nthe votes of an election candidate can be sentenced to a maximum
\nof one year's imprisonment or fined up to Rp 10 million
\n(US$1,162.8).<\/p>\n
After realizing how serious the matter was, Syarifudin had
\nonly this to say: \"I will leave it up to God as to what
\npunishment they will impose on me. I just hope, however, that
\npeople believe that I only meant it as a joke.\"<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/official-caught-piercing-ballots-1447893297",
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