Ballot papers in Jakarta to be recounted: Djafar

Ballot papers in Jakarta to be recounted: Djafar

JAKARTA (JP): Millions of ballot papers in the city will be
recounted, after the Jakarta Provincial Elections Committee said
there were indications of serious violations in the tallying.

The decision was taken on Friday after a reportedly tense
meeting of the committee which lasted about four hours. Thirty-
two political parties have demanded the poll be repeated in
Jakarta.

"Many cases of inconsistencies were found," committee chairman
Djafar Badjeber said, adding that final results would be
announced on schedule on June 17. "I don't think we can make it,"
a committee member said, but he added it was better than having
inaccurate results.

Errors were found in several subdistrict result reports.

Head of the program division at the provincial committee
Muchammad Taufik said all ballot papers should be rechecked.

Committee spokesman Lukman Zaini said it would be up to the
committee's program division to decide the rechecking method.

"The program division will decide on whether to recount all
the ballot papers in the 10,198 boxes for the House of
Representatives (DPR) and another 10,198 boxes for the City
Council, or whether to only adjust the documents," Lukman said of
the reports from subdistrict, district and mayoralty levels.

There were about 5.07 million registered voters in the city,
but the provincial committee has yet to reveal the percentage of
those who exercised their voting right and the percentage of
votes tallied.

Before the meeting, the Jakarta chapters of 32 political
parties released a statement saying they would not sign the
official report of the provincial elections committee if doubts
persisted, and that the poll should be repeated if the
inaccuracies could not be settled.

Golkar, the National Awakening Party (PKB), the United
Development Party (PPP), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the
Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) were
among those which did not sign the statement. However, a PDI
Perjuangan representative said the party would support the
possibility of a repeat of the polls.

The ballot boxes and papers, together with other poll
equipment, are now being safeguarded at the 43 district polling
committees in the city by committee members and security guards.

Djafar said apart from human errors "there could also be vote-
rigging attempts".

He said provincial committee members found different ballot
counting results in, among other areas, the districts of Cakung
in East Jakarta, Pondok Pinang and Kembangan in West Jakarta.

The completed "DA 5" forms in Kembangan district confused
provincial committee members. They could not agree on the purpose
of the forms which revealed discrepancies in PDI Perjuangan
results at the local level as opposed to the subdistrict level.

Discrepancies were also found between tabulation reports of
polling place committees with those of their subdistrict poll
committees. Committee members also said some polling officials
did not follow electoral procedures. Violations included counting
sheets not being signed by subdistrict election committee
officials or witnesses from political parties.

Taufik said the vote recounting, to be held at district
committees, would be held by representatives of provincial and
mayoralty election committees, together with members of the
district poll committees.

For thousands of officials involved in the ballot recounting,
their workload has hardly stopped since the June 7 polls.

Deputy chairman of the provincial committee Ahmad Djubaedi
said all subdistrict polling committees were instructed to cease
reporting results to the General Elections Committee (KPU), in
order to avoid further confusion in the Jakarta results.

Separately chairman of the National Elections Committee Jacob
Tobing said the presence of the supervisory committee and
witnesses were enough to guarantee vote-rigging would not take
place in the recounting process. (ind)