Violation charges prolong end to ballot count<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): Many harried provincial elections committees
\nhave moved back the completion of their vote counts from June 17
\ndeadline to June 21, citing technical complications or
\ncontroversy over alleged violations.<\/p>\n
Tiny but troubled East Timor is one of only a few provinces to
\nfinish the vote count on time, although protests lodged by
\nIndonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) marred
\nthe approval of the results.<\/p>\n
Chairman of the East Timor election committee Gaspar Sarmento
\nwas quoted by Antara as saying on Friday that the results were
\nfinal. He said the committee would relay PDI Perjuangan's
\ncomplaint to the General Elections Commission (KPU).<\/p>\n
Election committees in Central Java, East Java, South
\nSulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku attributed their failure
\nto beat the deadline to irregularities before and during the June
\n7 polls.<\/p>\n
In North Sumatra and West Java, the complete vote count is
\nexpected to take place on Saturday because most regency and
\nmayoralty polling committees have yet to submit their reports.<\/p>\n
The East Nusa Tenggara polling committee upheld on Thursday
\nthe demand by 20 branches of parties registered in the province
\nthat balloting in South Central Timor regency be reheld due to
\nviolations blamed on the ruling Golkar Party. A fact-finding team
\nof five deployed to the regency capital of SoE by the committee
\nfound evidence that Golkar used bureaucratic channels to prevent
\npeople from exercising their right to vote.<\/p>\n
"It's up to the election supervisory committee to decide
\nwhether the poll should be reheld in all polling stations across
\nthe regency or only in places where violations were spotted,"
\nchairman of East Nusa Tenggara election committee Chris Boro
\nTokan said.<\/p>\n
He said the committee also recommended that the official poll
\nwatchdog disqualify Golkar and take the culprits to court.<\/p>\n
The Maluku election committee will only start its vote count
\non Monday next week, pending reports from a special team sent to
\nNorth Maluku regency to verify reports of the involvement of
\ncivil servants to assure a Golkar win.<\/p>\n
The ruling party notched a landslide win, with more than
\n111,000 votes in North Maluku, amid swirling allegations raised
\nby 20 parties that the bureaucracy was behind cheating found
\nbefore and on the election day. The protesting parties said they
\nfound district chiefs campaigned for Golkar, warned people
\nagainst voting for parties other than Golkar and encouraged vote
\nrigging. They also protested the Ternate sultan, who issued a
\nletter asking people to support Golkar.<\/p>\n
When the parties agreed to reject the polls, the regency
\npolling committee joined them.<\/p>\n
Deputy chairman of Maluku election committee John Lokollo led
\nthe team of three assigned to probe the allegations.<\/p>\n
Chairman of Maluku election supervisory body Arbani played
\ndown the regency election committee's rejection, saying the
\ndecision was taken without consulting the official poll watchdog.<\/p>\n
"The protesters must specify what kind of violations they
\nfound and they cannot reject the overall results of the polls
\nbecause of offenses in certain places," Arbani said.<\/p>\n
As of Friday, the East Java election committee received poll
\nresults in 11 of 37 regencies and mayoralties across the
\nprovince.<\/p>\n
A member of the provincial election committee, Amin Soeharto
\nof the Masyumi Party, said irregularities were spotted in six of
\nthe submitted polls reports. They ranged from unsigned poll
\nresults in subdistricts to stained report papers.<\/p>\n
There also were discrepancies between the figures of votes
\ncompiled by the regency election committee and the counts of
\nindividual parties.<\/p>\n
The Central Java election committee interrupted the count on
\nFriday after finding over 100,000 extra ballots. Deputy chairman
\nof the committee, Daromi Irdjas, said the extra votes came from
\nat least six regencies, including Boyolali, Salatiga and
\nKaranganyar.<\/p>\n
A special team has been sent to the regencies to investigate
\nwhether multiple voting by individuals occurred.<\/p>\n
But Daromi dismissed the allegations as premature. "I suspect
\noverballoting occurred because we easily accepted requests for
\nmore ballot papers from regency election committees," he said.<\/p>\n
The KPU provided provincial election committees with reserve
\nballot papers due to fears that many papers were damaged or
\nsubstandard.<\/p>\n
Also on Friday, a group of minor parties dropped their threat
\nnot to endorse the poll results. They acquiesced after hearing
\nthat the provincial election committee promised to back their
\ndemand that KPU lift a ruling requiring a party to win at least 2
\npercent of the vote to qualify for the next polls.<\/p>\n
In Ujungpandang, a group of parties declared on Friday they
\nrejected the "cheating-riddled" polls and asked the KPU to order
\na reholding of the vote in 10 regencies in South Sulawesi.<\/p>\n
Secretary of the provincial election committee Junus Dekeng
\nsaid the protest meant related regency polling committees lacked
\nminimum number of votes to endorse the poll results. The
\nregencies include Pangkep, North Luhu, South Luhu, Majene, Gowa,
\nMamuju and Polmas.<\/p>\n
"The protest has played havoc with the vote count, but we
\nexpect the problem will be resolved as soon as our fact-finding
\nteam finishes its job in the problematic areas," Junus said.<\/p>\n
The vote count in Yogyakarta also is tardy because the local
\nelection committee is verifying poll results in some districts.
\nChairman of the committee Nur Achmad Affandi said the
\nverification was needed after it was found that National Mandate
\nParty (PAN) received about 200 extra votes when PDI Perjuangan
\nlost approximately the same number of ballots.
\n(30\/40\/43\/44\/48\/nur\/har\/amd)<\/p>",
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