Cash rewards given to poll committee

Cash rewards given to poll committee

JAKARTA (JP): While most of its counterparts are still
debating poll results in their areas, the North Sulawesi
elections committee has seen its hard work pay off.

The North Sulawesi administration has awarded each of the 44
provincial poll committee members Rp 7 million (US$1,040) to
encourage them to bring a speedy end to deliberations over
reports of violations.

Committee chairman F. Sumampow and deputy Abid Takalamingan
denied on Thursday the "honorary awards" were intended to
encourage the elections committee to ignore demands to repeat the
polls in some areas.

"The money has been handed over personally to all committee
members, but it does not stop us from gathering evidence of
violations and cheating," Sumampouw told Antara.

He said each recipient signed an invoice which was stamped
neither by their respective parties nor the committee.

North Sulawesi is one of eight provinces under the scrutiny of
the official Elections Supervisory Committee, which has
recommended that repeat ballots be held in places where
violations were found, particularly in Bitung, Bolaang Mongondow
and Gorontalo regencies.

The recommendation was issued following reports that many
voters in the three regencies were threatened and intimidated
during the polls, that poll results in several subdistricts were
manipulated and that an executive of the ruling Golkar party,
A.A. Baramuli, tried to buy votes.

An employee at the Provincial Elections Committee office, who
asked for anonymity, criticized the unexpected gifts, saying they
would tarnish the image of the committee and the administration.

In Central Java and East Nusa Tenggara, demands for polls to
be repeated have increased after violations, blamed on Golkar and
the bureaucracy, were found.

The Central Java elections committee upheld a recommendation
from the Semarang regency committee that balloting be reheld in
four polling stations in Tukang village following reports of
vote-rigging by Golkar. But committee chairman Hadi Pranoto said
the final say to hold the ballot again would rest with the
National Elections Committee (PPI).

Some 500 people, comprising activists from parties, non-
governmental organizations, poll observers and villagers, rallied
at the Semarang regency elections committee to demand poll reruns
in four villages.

In Kupang, the East Nusa Tenggara elections supervisory
committee ordered polls be repeated in five polling stations in
Alor regency after finding evidence that a number of civil
servants and bureaucrats intervened in the voting process.

The committee's deputy chairman, Yusuf Kuahaty, said he was
waiting for a green light from PPI to rehold the polls in Alor.

An investigation team led by Yusuf found that village
officials denied access to a polling station in Merdeka village
to witnesses from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and
the Christian Nationalist Party.

Yusuf said the province's official poll watchdog had also sent
teams to investigate reports of violations in North Central and
South Central Timor regencies.

An investigative team of the national Elections Supervisory
Committee, led by Ramlan Surbakti, visited Padang, the capital of
West Sumatra, on Thursday to collect evidence of violations that
led 15 parties to reject the polls and demand that Golkar be
disqualified.

"I saw them myself commit foul play," Suni Party chapter
chairwoman Harti Amran told the team amid her sobs. She was
referring to Golkar.

Responding to mounting demands for poll reruns, the University
Network for Free and Fair Elections (Unfrel) suggested the
General Elections Commission (KPU) be strict in selecting which
appeals would be approved.

It recommended that polls be repeated only in places where
substantial violations took place, and that independent poll
watchdogs be involved in the repeat ballots.

In Medan, a group of student and youth activists rallied at
the North Sumatra elections committee office to reject the polls.
The "Total Reform Front" said the general election was
illegitimate because it was mandated in the General Session of
the People's Consultative Assembly. At least 13 students and
residents were killed when security forces opened fire on a mass
rally protesting last November's General Session. (28/39/40/har/amd)