Ad hoc tribunal for election offenders urged

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The lack of legal action taken against election irregularities in the past has sparked demands for an ad hoc tribunal to try those violating the election law.

Syamsuddin Haris of the National Institute of Sciences (LIPI) and General Elections Commission (KPU) deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said that an ad hoc tribunal was required to enable law enforcers to take action against political parties or individuals who commit election-related crimes.

Speaking at a seminar here, the two political experts said they had lost trust in the Supreme Court and the Attorney General's Office, which were authorized to deal with election violations.

"The present Indonesian legal system has failed to handle various violations of the election law. An ad hoc tribunal would assist judges in dealing with political issues," Syamsuddin said.

He said the government could recruit ad hoc judges from political experts, who are familiar with election issues.

Ramlan, a professor of politics at Airlangga University, criticized the election bill currently being deliberated at the House of Representatives for failing to anticipate public complaints, offer a mechanism to settle disputes between parties and specify which institution has the authority to try violators of the election law.

"The government just never learned from the 1999 polls, when many parties were alleged to have been in violation of the election law but no legal institute moved to punish them.

"If the country is serious about eliminating unfair practices, the government should come up with a clear regulation on which institution is authorized to try violators," Ramlan said.

The New Order's ruling Golkar Party was often accused of manipulation and misusing state facilities and funds to win a majority vote in each of the six general elections between 1971 and 1997.

The 1997 election was restaged in several regencies in East Java, including in Sampang on Madura island, following the United Development Party's disclosure of election fraud that benefited Golkar. Nevertheless, the ruling party remained untouchable.

Last year, the Supreme Court ruled out the demand of a group of parties that Golkar be dissolved or disqualified for allegedly accepting donations that exceeded the maximum amount allowed per donation according to Law No. 2/1999 on elections.

The court said the plaintiffs could not provide admissible evidence of Golkar's alleged violations of the election law.

The law allows a political party to accept no more than Rp 15 million from individuals, and no more than Rp 150 million from private companies, legal bodies or organizations.

Violations could lead to a party's disqualification, suspension or dissolution, according to the 1999 election law.

Also speaking at the seminar was Gothom Arya, a former member of the general election commission in Thailand, who said that the commission in his country had the right to seize any relevant documents or evidence from any person, summon any person to testify and request the courts, state prosecutors and inquiry officials to take action against election law offenders.

"Of course we served only to adjudicate election cases, but not to try criminal cases, like to sentence somebody to jail, as that authority is given to the Supreme Court," Arya told The Jakarta Post.