Foul play 'behind delay of legislature list issuance'

JAKARTA (JP): Election officials have revealed that foul play, including tampering with computer files in the National Elections Committee, was behind yet another delay in the announcement of the provincial list of some 13,000 provincial legislature candidates.

Committee chairman Jacob Tobing cited on Saturday night a party which originally submitted on hard copies the names of its candidates for 16 provinces. The party, which Jacob did not identify, was later recorded in the computer files as having candidates for all of Indonesia's 27 provinces.

Jacob refused to confirm the computer files have been tampered with, saying there could be ordinary "typing errors." Other committee members, however, alleged "political interference" in the glitches.

Earlier, printing problems were blamed for the delay. The Metro Pos printing company was said to be unable to produce 80,000 sheets, in newspaper format, of the list, which will be distributed across the country.

The list was originally scheduled for release on May 12, to be followed by three days of distribution. The public was then to be given until May 16 and May 17 to judge and raise objections about the listing.

Jacob promised all officials would work overtime to recheck and announce the list on Sunday. He also said the final list of legislative candidates would be issued on May 19 at the latest.

He said to facilitate circulation of the information, the list would be issued to the media on computer disks, while the public could access it through a website: http//www. pemilu99.or.id.

Committee members have earlier alleged foul play behind the repeated delays. Some pointed out it did not make sense the printing company, which prints popular publications such as the Pos Kota and Terbit dailies, should be unable to produce the list.

"From the beginning, we were never informed of the company chosen to print the list. It is all being handled by the secretary of the General Elections Commission (KPU)," said PPI deputy chairman Hasballah M. Saad of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

Kristya Kartika of the Deliberation, Work and Cooperation Party (MKGR Party) said "political interference" also contributed to the delay, as some parties reportedly tried to insert new names and change the list on their own.

"There is a systematic effort to tarnish the credibility of PPI and KPU (General Elections Commission). I cannot say who launched the campaign, but it will hinder the poll process badly," he said.

Jacob also said that up to Friday 86 percent of the 130 million eligible voters had registered.

In Aceh, chairman of the Provincial Elections Committee (PPDI) Farhan Hamid told The Jakarta Post by phone that up until 5 p.m. on Saturday, 55 percent of the total 2,315,244 eligible voters in the province had registered.

"The voter registration in troubled regencies of Pidie, North Aceh and East Aceh reaches 18, 22, and 48 percent respectively," Farhan said.

In a related development, the Maluku branch of the Rectors Forum, an independent poll-monitoring body, said it needs at least 3,500 volunteers to supervise the poll. Up until now it has recruited 1,200 students in the area.

Meanwhile, Antara quoted Indonesian Ambassador HBL Mantiri in Singapore as saying hundreds of Chinese-Indonesians from Jakarta and several other major cities in Java would be arriving in the island city-state beginning Monday.

"Rumors about the possibility of an outbreak of unrest before and during the campaigning period could have prompted them to leave for Singapore, and Jakarta-Singapore air tickets were already sold out," he said.

In a related development in Semarang on Saturday, around 1,000 supporters of 48 political parties held a convoy for peace around the city. The event took place after they pledged to conduct peaceful electioneering in the coming days.

The parade was seen off by Governor Mardiyanto, accompanied by Central Java Military chief Maj. Gen. Bibit Waluyo and Police chief Maj. Gen. Nurfaizi.

Nurfaizi later told said the political parties had agreed to prevent supporters from holding campaign rallies along the highways of Central Java's north coast.

The highways are Java's artery for staple food distribution from Jakarta to other areas across the island.

According to Nurfaizi, two-thirds of the province's police force of 14,000 personnel would be deployed across the region to maintain order. They would be supported by members of the recently recruited civilian militia (Kamra).

In Medan, North Sumatra, 10 out of 47 political parties in the area failed to show up at a meeting held by the provincial elections committee, to prepare for the campaigning period.

Separately in Jayapura, Irian Jaya, the regency election committee in Jayawijaya found several voter registration forms sealed with the ruling party Golkar stamp.

"The forms are supposed to be stamped with the subdistrict polling committee (PPS) seal," said committee chief Ben Vincent Djeharu. (edt/aan/har/39/34)