After Al-Zaytun fiasco, KPU orders repeat balloting in Tawau
After Al-Zaytun fiasco, KPU orders repeat balloting in Tawau
M. Taufiqurrahman and Adianto P. Simamora, Jakarta
The General Elections Commission has decided to hold a revote at
a polling station for Indonesian expatriates in the East
Malaysian town of Tawau after the Election Supervisory Committee
(Panwaslu) filed a complaint over allegations of vote rigging
there.
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti confirmed on Friday that
the vote in Tawau had indeed been rigged in favor of presidential
candidate Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate Jusuf
Kalla.
"As we have ruled in the Al-Zaytun case, we have decided that
a repeat ballot must take place in Tawau. And all electoral
processes must be completed before July 25," he told reporters
here.
Earlier on Thursday, the commission also decided to hold a
revote at 83 polling stations located inside the grounds of the
Al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school in Indramayu regency, West
Java.
The commission finally accepted that over 13,000 votes that
were cast at the Islamic school were invalid.
Ramlan said that the KPU general secretariat was readying
election materials for the repeat ballots.
Panwaslu has filed complaints with the police over alleged
violations of election regulations by a number of members of the
polling station committee in Tawau.
The official supervisory committee alleged that polling
station committee members, some of whom were liaison officers,
punched some 8,000 ballots in favor of the Susilo-Kalla ticket.
In response to the complaint, the police are expected to
dispatch a team to Tawau to see if there is sufficient evidence
to launch an investigation.
The police have also said that officers would be sent to
provide protection for local Panwaslu members, who have
reportedly been threatened.
In a related development, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said
that none of its staff in the Consulate General in Kinabalu, East
Malaysia, were involved in the alleged vote-rigging at the
polling station.
He said that a team set up by the Consulate General had held
its own investigation and found no indications that any of its
staff were involved in illegally perforating the ballot papers.
"We don't have a Consulate General in Tawau and there are no
personnel from our ministry residing there," Marty Natalegawa,
the ministry's spokesman, told a press briefing here.
He said there was only a liaison office in Tawau, which was
set up merely to handle immigration matters.
"But again, there are no personnel from the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs assigned to the office," he said.
Marty said that a team consisting of officers from the
Indonesian Consulate General in Kinabalu and members of the
National Police was now conducting an investigation into the
case.