Australians to observe polls

JAKARTA: Australia has decided to send an eight-strong election monitoring team to Indonesia to observe the legislative election in several areas in West Java, Central Java, East Java, Lampung, South Sulawesi, East Kalimantan, Bali and East Nusa Tenggara.

The Australian Embassy said in a statement made available to the press on Sunday that the team which had been accredited by the General Elections Commission (KPU) consisted of Sen. David Johnston, Sen. Ruth Weber, Sen. Natasha Scot Despoja, Margareth May, MP, Sean Gillian, Robert Hunter, Warwick Oleven and Peter Bassel.

Altogether there are eight accredited international monitoring teams, including the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI). --JP