Committee discloses problems in overseeing poll

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Elections Supervisory Committee is finding it difficult to uncover administrative violations by candidates running for seats on the Regional Representatives Council in the 2004 general elections due to a lack of witnesses willing to blow the whistle on cheaters.

The committee's vice chairman Saut H. Sirait said most potential witnesses were unwilling to disclose violations by Council candidates out of fears for their personal security.

"This country does not have a witness protection law. Thus, it is only normal for people to be worried about their safety if they report violations committed by Council candidates," Sirait told The Jakarta Post Tuesday.

Each province is allocated three Council seats in the 2004 elections and a candidate must have been resident in the province he wishes to represent for at least three consecutive years prior to the date on which he submitted his candidacy and have lived for a period of ten consecutive years in that province after he reached the age of 17.

In addition, a candidate must not have been a member of a political party for at least four consecutive years prior to the submission of his nomination papers to the Provincial Elections Commission (KPUD).

On top of that, a candidates must also be supported by the signatures of between 1,000 and 5,000 people depending on the population of the province in which he is standing.

Reports have been circulating for quite some time that many Council candidates had been furnishing fake or forged documents concerning the residency and public support requirements.

In East Java, for example, some Council candidates have submitted fake identity (ID) cards, which are available on the black market for between Rp 5,000 (60 U.S. cents) and Rp 10,000 each.

In Central Sulawesi, the Elections Supervisory Committee has indicated that some Council candidates had forced people to supply them with their signatures and ID card numbers, which were then used as evidence of support for the candidates.

Some applicants had also reportedly manipulated the distribution of cheap rice to the poor so as to ascertain people's ID card numbers.

In Yogyakarta, the local general elections commission has discovered that 13,000 expired ID cards were used by Council candidates to support their nominations.

Other candidates also still hold positions as leaders of political parties, which is prohibited by electoral law.

Under electoral law, such violations carry a maximum penalty of 18 months in jail, or a Rp 6 million fine.

Sri Sugeng Pujiatmiko, the vice chairman of the East Java Elections Supervisory Committee, said on Tuesday that witnesses in two locations in Surabaya, East Java, had disappeared after the committee tried to contact them.

"These people are afraid to report what they know. But without their testimony, the cases against the offending Council candidates are very weak," he said.

To resolve the problem, Saut said the Committee was seeking to collaborate with a number of monitoring organizations to help protect witnesses.

"Under our plan, we will encourage monitoring organizations rather than individuals to report violations committed by Council candidates to the committee," he said.

Based on this approach, witnesses would anonymously submit reports to the monitoring organizations, and the latter would then forward these to the committee, and testify before the court if necessary, he said.

The General Elections Commission accepted the final nominations for Council candidates on Monday, and started vetting them on Sept. 16. This process will continue until Nov. 30.

Some 1,238 people are running for seats on the Council.

The Elections Supervisory Committee plans to recruit over 500,000 volunteers to monitor voting in subdistricts across the country.

"We will decide on the exact number of volunteers later this month in cooperation with the House of Representatives and the General Elections Commission," he said.