Blast rattles home of election official

Indra Harsaputra/ID Nugroho, The Jakarta Post, Surabaya

A bomb exploded late Friday in front of a house owned by a senior poll official in the East Java regency of Pasuruan. No fatalities were reported.

The explosion was the second incident so far, after an anonymous party sent a package to the central General Elections Commission (KPU) in Jakarta containing 11 live bullets, in October last year. There are 11 KPU members.

H.M. Sodiq, the chairman of Pasuruan's KPU who lives in Rembang subdistrict in the regency, recounted that he had been lying on his bed at 11 p.m on Friday, around the time that the bomb went off.

First, he heard a car being driven east at high speed. Several minutes later, he also heard a motorcycle speeding toward the same direction. The motorcycle slowed down, and at the same time, the bomb exploded, he recalled.

"Again, the motorcycle headed to the east. I believe that the motorcyclist had thrown the bomb in front of my house. It was a really big explosion. I thought that my house would be in ruins," he said on Saturday at his house, located on Jl. Masjid Jami' here.

After the explosion, thick smoke enveloped Sodiq's house. He said that he had no idea what the motive behind the bombing was, but admitted that in the days leading up to the bombing, he had received several death threats via short-messaging-system (sms).

He also recalled that a few hours before the bomb had exploded, an unidentified man had been looking for him at the Pasuruan KPU office, in downtown Pasuruan.

"The person asked a staff member of the Pasuruan KPU office where I was. The staff member replied that I was at home," Sodiq said.

He demanded a swift investigation into the incident, for fear that other attacks could follow.

Didik Prasetyono, a member of East Java provincial KPU, expressed surprise over the incident. He said that he was not aware of any conflicts between the Pasuruan KPU and political parties hoping to contest the 2004 elections.

Separately, the chief of Pasuruan Police Precinct, Adj. Sr. Comr. Lukman Wahyu, said that preliminary investigations revealed that the bomb had probably been wrapped in white cloth, as many pieces of white cloth were found at the scene.

"We are still trying to work out what kind of bomb exploded outside Sodiq's house," he said.