Election irregularities reported to police

Election irregularities reported to police

Damar Harsanto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A number of unsuccessful governor and deputy governor
candidates made allegations to the police on Monday that money
politics may have tainted the recent gubernatorial election.

"We are here to put pressure on the police, who appear not to
be serious in reacting toward public outcry over alleged
irregularities in the recent gubernatorial election," said Ahmad
Heryawan, one of the unsuccessful candidates, from the Justice
Party.

Ahmad attributed the irregularities partly to the action of
some councillors, in which they marked the written names of
candidates with characters in bold on their ballot papers to
indicate they had voted for them.

"Such practice is a violation of electoral procedure,
especially with regard to the principle of secrecy, as there were
indications of attempts to influence councillors during the
election," said Ahmad.

Ahmad was accompanied by Abdul Azis Matnur, secretary of the
Jakarta chapter of the Justice Party, and Adang Suhardjo, who
represented Abdillah Toha, an unsuccessful deputy governor
candidate from the National Mandate Party. Abdillah did not
appear as he was abroad.

According to Adang, another unsuccessful governor candidate,
Tarmidi Suharjo of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle,
who had confirmed his support for the action, could not appear
for personal reasons. "His father is sick and Pak Tarmidi has
apologized that he could not appear right now," he said.

Adang urged the police to take concrete action, including the
summoning of witnesses and seizure of the ballot papers, before
the installation of incumbent governor Sutiyoso and his deputy,
Fauzi Bowo, slated for Oct. 7.

"This is our last chance to cancel the installation. If the
police don't do anything meaningful before that deadline, the
public will judge by themselves how poor will have been the
police response to an issue of legitimate public concern," said
Adang.

City police spokesman Sr. Comr. Anton Bachrul Alam said
earlier the police were still investigating the matter.

"Our investigators are still collecting evidence," said Anton.