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.