Al-Zaytun bars election officials

Al-Zaytun bars election officials

Yuli Tri Suwarni, The Jakarta Post, Bandung

The West Java General Elections Commission (KPUD) may fail to
hold this month's presidential poll runoff at Al-Zaytun as the
controversial Islamic boarding school had refused officials
permission to reregister voters around the complex.

KPUD member Radhar Tri Baskoro said on Tuesday that the
school, which is located in Indramayu regency, had refused to
allow local poll officials to verify the number of voters by the
deadline of Aug. 31, 2004.

The election commission, meanwhile, said it was sticking with
its earlier data that the number of registered voters was only
11,565, he added.

"The Al-Zaytun administrators claim that the procedures used
in counting the number of voters for the first round of the
presidential election were already correct. Therefore, they have
refused to allow us to verify the number of voters," Radhar told
journalists in Bandung, West Java.

He said that Al-Zaytun director A.S. Panji Gumilang insisted
on asking the Indramayu poll commission to prepare polling
stations and ballot papers according to the number of people who
were recorded as casting votes at the school during the July 5
presidential election.

A total of 24,818 people were recorded as casting their
ballots at the school, where 83 polling stations had been set up,
during the first round of the election. However, the number of
registered voters there was only slightly more than 11,000.

Almost all the 24,818 voters cast their ballots for
presidential candidate Gen. (ret) Wiranto, who failed to qualify
for the Sept. 20, 2004, election runoff.

The high turnout sparked accusations that military officers
had transported the additional voters to Al-Zaytun to support
Wiranto, a former chief security minister who came third in the
July 5 election.

The central General Elections Commission (KPU) later annulled
the results of the first round of the presidential election at
Al-Zaytun, and held a revote there on July 25.

The revote turned out to be a farce as none of the Al-Zaytun
voters showed up to cast their ballots at the 39 polling stations
established outside the school complex at Mekarjaya village,
Gantar district.

The failure was blamed by election supervisory committee
officials on Al-Zaytun leaders, who rejected the revote and
allegedly prevented voters there from casting their ballotsright.

Radhar said that despite a possible boycott by the
controversial school, the KPUD would set up 39 polling stations
outside the complex in order to allow eligible voters to cast
their ballots in the election runoff.

"We will give the 11,565 registered voters the chance to
vote," he said.

He said that his office had asked the Indramayu Police to
provide security during the Sept. 20 runoff at Al-Zaytun.

The immensely wealthy school sparked public controversy
previously after some number parents alleged that it taught their
children a "deviant" form of Islam. The school flatly denied the
allegations.

Established in 1996, mystery still surrounds the source of the
school's huge wealths, with accusations rife that Panji Gumilang
is a former activist with the now-defunct Indonesian Islamic
State (NII) movement. Panji denies the allegations.