Court back Beratha's swearing-in
Wahyoe Boediwardhana and I Wayan Juniartha, The Jakarta Post, Denpasar, Bali
Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno on Thursday swore in Dewa Made Beratha as the Bali governor for the 2003-2008 period as a court on the same day dismissed a suit against his reelection after allegations of bribery.
The inauguration ceremony, held at the Bali legislative council, was attended by some 2,400 invited guests, including State Minister of Tourism and Culture I Gde Ardika, councillors, police and military officers.
In an apparent show of force, thousands of people, dressed in traditional Balinese attire, cordoned off the swearing-in venue in support of Beratha.
They arrived aboard dozens of trucks, buses and other vehicles, carrying various banners with slogans in support for the reelected governor, who was backed by the President Megawati Soekarnoputri and her central board of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan).
Those in support of Beratha claimed that the allegations of bribery during the Aug. 6 election were just a ploy to divide the loyalties of the Balinese people.
"They (supporters) came from several regencies in Bali and I can assure you that not all of them are PDI Perjuangan supporters. A majority of them were mobilized by influential Desa Adat (ancestral village) leaders," an officer said.
The inauguration ran smoothly as over 600 police, army and marine officers, equipped with metal detectors and other surveillance equipment, secured the council building.
Meanwhile, the Bali State Administrative Court turned down a civil suit submitted by PDI Perjuangan councillor I Wayan Nuastha, who demanded the annulment of the election results.
"The Bali legislative council's decision ... falls beyond the legal jurisdiction of this court," presiding judge Agus Wahyu Rahadi said, announcing the verdict.
Dozens of Beratha's supporters, who attended the trial, gave a big applause to the verdict.
Neither Nuastha nor his lawyer Wayan Sudirtha were present.
Nuastha had confessed that he and other PDI Perjuangan councillors had been "bribed" to vote for Beratha who was paired with running mate Kesuma Kelakan.
Nuastha and his colleague Soebratha said they were given traveler checks worth Rp 50 million (US$5,952) each from the party's central executive board as a "bribe" to support Beratha's reelection bid.
Two days ahead of the gubernatorial election, the party secluded all 39 of its councillors in a resort hotel in an apparent move to make sure that none of them would defy Megawati's order to vote for Beratha.
However, he secured only 31 out of the 55 votes to win the gubernatorial election, defeating his rival candidate I Gede Ary Suta, a wealthy businessman nominated by the Golkar Party.
Separately, Bali Police chief Insp. Gen. I Made Mangku Pastika said his office had also investigate the reports of bribery in the election but reportedly could not find "sufficient evidence to continue the probe".
"There is no term for 'money politics' in our laws," Antara quoted him as saying, as he referred to the local Anglicized phrase for political bribes or other forms of corruption.
Pastika further argued that the traveler check case, reported by the two PDI Perjuangan councillors, could not be categorized as corruption because it did not cause any loss to the state that he knew of.