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.