Cirebon mayor faces poll bias trial
Nana Rukmana, The Jakarta Post, Cirebon
Prosecutors pledged on Monday to complete the case file of the mayor of the West Java city of Cirebon, Subardi, in two weeks. He has been charged with illegally campaigning for the incumbent, President Megawati Soekarnoputri ahead of the Sept. 20 election runoff.
"We are striving to complete investigating the file on Subardi in less than 14 days. After which, we will take the case to court," said Herdinan Soekarsa, head of the general crimes division of the Cirebon Prosecutor's Office.
He confirmed his office had received the police's dossier on Friday.
Herdinan said the mayor would not be detained for the time being, as he has been charged with an offense that carries a maximum penalty of six months in prison. Under existing laws, a suspect can only be detained if the crime they are charged with is punishable with a sentence of at least five years in prison.
Cirebon Police chief of detectives Adj. Comr. Eka Mulyana said there was sufficient evidence the mayor had violated Election Law No. 23/2003, which bans state officials from publicly supporting a candidate's election bid.
Evidence against Subardi includes a video compact disc (VCD), which shows him participating in an event on Sept. 16 to declare support for the reelection bid of Megawati, and her running mate Hasyim Muzadi.
Further evidence is a T-shirt bearing a picture of Megawati and Hasyim, which the mayor wore during the event in which he allegedly called on people to vote for the incumbent President.
The poll partiality case was reported by the Cirebon Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu), which accused the mayor of illegally campaigning for the Megawati-Hasyim ticket.
Local administration secretary Ano Sutrisno admitted that Subardi did not have permission from the city's General Elections Commission (KPUD) to campaign, nor had he taken leave from his official duties to do so, according to Cirebon Police chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Siswandi.
The mayor was declared a suspect in the case after being questioned for more than six hours last Wednesday at the local police office.
Earlier, Central Java's Banyumas Police chief Sr. Comr. Andi Mapparesa was fired by National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar for campaigning for Megawati and Hasyim ahead of the first round of the election on July 5.
Andi was found guilty by a police disciplinary committee of breaching his force's code of ethics for siding with a certain candidate.
Meanwhile, Banyumas' Panwaslu accused Andi of violating the Constitution as he had failed to uphold the police's impartiality in the election.