Councillors bicker over voting procedure

Councillors bicker over voting procedure

Novan Iman Santosa, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

City Council factions are divided on the voting procedure for the
Sept. 11 gubernatorial election especially concerning
confidentiality in the voting process.

Contacted separately on Friday, councillors from the Justice
Party (PK) and National Mandate Party (PAN) factions told The
Jakarta Post that they preferred that councillors mark a cross on
the ballot paper or perforate the paper instead of writing the
candidate's names on the paper.

Meanwhile, the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) factions insisted that
councillors write the names of the candidates.

"Our faction wants the ballot paper to be marked with crosses
as it will guarantee the confidentiality of the vote as required
by the 1999 Law No. 22 on regional autonomy," said chairman of PK
faction, Achmad Heryawan.

"Writing the names will open the possibility for certain deals
to take place."

Achmad said that certain groups could add special words to
signify their group so each candidate would know by the
signifying mark which group had voted for them.

Suppose several groups supported a candidate named Amir, said
Achmad. The first group could write "Amir OK" while the second
group could choose to write "Amir Yes". The third group could use
another code.

Achmad said the Golkar Party and the Indonesian Democratic
Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) factions based their argument
on practices carried out at both the House of Representatives
(DPR) and the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).

"Voting procedures at the DPR and MPR are carried out by
writing candidates' names on blank paper. It has become a
convention at those state institutions.

"But we (City Council) have our own conventions. Besides,
marking crosses against the names on the ballot paper will
prevent unfair practices," said Achmad.

Achmad also admitted that the council's election regulations
did not specify whether the ballot paper had to be crossed,
perforated, or written on.

Meanwhile, councillor Syamsuardi Botan of PAN faction said
that there were vested interests at stake if Golkar and PDI
Perjuangan kept insisting on writing the candidates names.

"If we want to really adopt the one man one vote policy, we
should perforate the ballots.

"Besides, it has been a City Council convention to perforate
the ballots instead of writing names. We don't have to copy the
practices of the MPR and DPR," he added.

Syamsuardi also said that perforating the ballot paper would
enable councillors to use their own conscience in choosing a
gubernatorial candidate.

"This procedure enables us to diverge from our party's policy
if we believe the party's policy is against public interests."

There have been rumors that PDI Perjuangan faction is
insisting on writing the candidates' names as a way to control
its members loyalty.

A split occurred in the faction with the decision to support
incumbent Governor Sutiyoso's renomination despite his alleged
involvement in the July 27, 1996 attack on PDI headquarters.

Faction members will be free to vote for candidates other than
Sutiyoso if the ballot is cast by either putting a cross against
the name or by perforating the name on the ballot papers.