EU praises RI election, local observers irked

EU praises RI election, local observers irked

M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) praised
Indonesia on Thursday for holding a peaceful and transparent
legislative election despite logistical problems.

The acknowledgement, however, quickly sparked criticism from
local observers and a former president, who accused the
international observers of drawing too early conclusions.

The EU EOM Chief Observer Glyn Ford said despite the
shortcomings, such as postponement and re-run of balloting in
some areas due to shortage of election materials, the election
was considered an important step towards the consolidation of
democracy in the country.

"Despite the fact there were one or two problems, the
elections have given the people of Indonesia the parliament which
they voted for," Ford, also a Member of the European Parliament
(MEP), said here.

He said the process that culminated in the election day was
credible and of great integrity.

The EU EOM has deployed 231 observers to all the country's 32
provinces, including to the troubled provinces of Aceh, Maluku
and Papua, to monitor what Ford described as "one of the most
complex elections in the world". It is the biggest foreign
election monitoring team in Indonesian history.

However, the preliminary evaluation, made only three days
after the polls, quickly drew criticism from a number of party
leaders and local observers.

Former president Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid, chief patron of
the National Awakening Party (PKB), said despite the EU mission's
tribute, his party would not easily accept the election results
due to rampant election fraud.

"We suspect that vote-rigging has taken place for the
interests of certain parties. The evaluation was designed to
vindicate them," Gus Dur said.

He said the irregularities had occurred in polling stations
but did not elaborate.

The PKB currently ranks third after about 30 percent of the
votes for the legislative election were tabulated by the General
Elections Commission (KPU) on Thursday.

The Indonesian Corruption Watch (ICW), Center for Electoral
Reform (Cetro), Transparency International and the People's
Network for Voters Education (JPPR) said the EU EOM praise was
premature.

Smita Notosusanto of Cetro said the foreign observers' remarks
the April 5 balloting was a success were dangerous as they would
influence the remaining stages of the election.

"In some regions, balloting is still underway and local
observers are still doing their jobs in monitoring the process
from the polling stations to the national level," Smita said
here.

She said the EU EOM should have consulted local observers
before making a conclusion.

The EU was invited by the KPU to monitor the 2004 elections.
After each election, the EU EOM issues a preliminary statement on
its findings with a more comprehensive report issued at a later
stage.

In the polls, the EU EOM monitored seven aspects of the
election: the degree of impartiality shown by the election
administration; the degree of freedom of political parties and
candidates to assemble and express their views; the fairness of
access to state resources made available to the election; the
degree of access for political parties and candidates to the
media, in particular the state media; the universal franchise
afforded to voters; any other issues that concerned the
democratic nature of the election; and the conduct of polling and
counting of votes.