EU sends more 5 July observers

EU sends more 5 July observers

Kurniawan Hari and Sari P. Setiogi, Jakarta

An additional group of 132 poll observers have joined the
European Union Election Observation Mission (EU EOM) for the July
5 presidential election.

The short-term observers, 128 from EU member states and four
from Switzerland, will join the mission that was established in
March, which consists of 12 experts, 68 long-term observers and
17 locally recruited observers.

"Five different teams will be deployed in each province. They
will observe the election day in urban and rural areas," said EU
EOM chief observer Glyn Ford here on Wednesday.

He said the short-term observers would travel across the
country to monitor the voting, the vote counting, and the
tabulation.

The work of the short-term observers, the long-term observers
in the field over the past weeks, and the core team in Jakarta
will allow the EU EOM to make an independent and impartial
assessment of the presidential election, Ford said.

He added that the EOM mission would announce the results of
its observation on July 8.

Deputy chief observer Oskar Lehner said the mission would also
observe the activities in rural areas.

The EU mission has picked Aceh, North Sumatra, Riau, Jambi,
South Sulawesi, Lampung, East Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, North
Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Ambon, Papua, and all provinces in Java
as the areas where observers will monitor the poll.

EU election analyst Domenico Tuccinardi said the long-term
observers had been monitoring the election preparations in the
provinces over the past three weeks.

Asked if the EU mission had found irregularities, Ford said
that the preparation was good so far. "There is no substantial
problem," he said.

Separately, the EU mission observed that the control mechanism
during the election process was working.

"(The control mechanism) within the KPU, Panwaslu and the very
top level, the Constitutional Court, is functioning," Lehner told
the press during his visit to the office of the Constitutional
Court in Central Jakarta earlier on Wednesday.

"In every country you will find wrongdoings and violations of
the election procedures, but what is very important is whether
the control mechanism functions properly," he said.

However, the mission admitted to having heard allegations that
vote buying was rampant ahead of the presidential election, and
would verify the reports.

"We found very often the allegation was there but when we
asked for witnesses, they tended to disappear. We are hoping to
work with the domestic observers, because we are certainly aware
of the allegations," Ford said.

Lehner added: "(The control bodies) should train witnesses
better to collect hard evidence because we found there were so
many allegations."

Asked about the European Union's interest in the election
here, Ford said, "It is quite cheaper for everybody concerned to
actually help a country stabilize and institute democracy rather
than the consequence of having an undemocratic regime."