Government to repeat voting at 111 polling stations in Madura
Government to repeat voting at 111 polling stations in Madura
JAKARTA (JP): In an unprecedented move, the government
acquiesced yesterday to the United Development Party's (PPP)
demand for a repeat of voting at 111 polling stations on Madura
island, East Java.
General Elections Institute Secretary-General Suryatna Subrata
said Thursday's voting in the area was disrupted due to a
"security disturbance".
He did not admit it but his statement was an indirect denial
of previous reports that residents of Sampang and Pamekasan
regencies were so outraged by blatant poll rigging that they
rioted, causing a great deal of destruction, before demanding
fresh polling.
The repeat balloting will be held on Tuesday in 86 sites in
Sampang and another 35 in Pamekasan at the request of their
respective district election committee chiefs.
It will be the first repeat voting ever under the New Order
government, which held its first election in 1971. Thursday's
polls were the seventh since Indonesia gained independence in
1945.
The vote counting is expected to be completed on Thursday, and
the official results will be announced on June 17.
Suryatna reiterated that vote-rigging allegations lodged by
PPP supporters were behind the decision to repeat the balloting.
"Those district election committee chiefs took the initiative
to repeat the voting because of the disrupted balloting on
Thursday," Suryatna said.
A 1996 ministerial decree issued by Minister of Home
Affairs/Chairman of the General Elections Institute Moch. Yogie
S.M. authorizes district election committee chiefs to repeat
voting without having to seek the institute's approval.
Thousands of PPP supporters went on the rampage in Sampang,
Pamekasan and Sumenep Thursday over perceived vote-rigging to
help Golkar win on the predominantly Moslem island.
Police arrested 15 people and shot two rioters with rubber
bullets after they attacked Golkar offices, government and other
buildings, and torched cars and motorcycles. Local PPP officials
claimed that 11 people were wounded, four of them suffering
serious injuries.
A delegation of PPP figureheads in the Madura towns met with
the party leadership earlier yesterday to report violations that
had occurred during polling.
"We want the government to repeat the balloting after we found
numerous irregularities," Sumli Sadly, PPP's East Java chief
said.
He said cheating allegations had also made PPP leaders in the
other Madura regencies of Bangkalan and Sumenep refuse to sign
the poll results. They have yet to decide whether they will
follow in the footsteps of their Sampang and Pamekasan
colleagues.
PPP Sampang office secretary Hasan Asy'ari said the election
violations included multiple voting by a regent assistant and his
family. He said PPP supporters caught the family red-handed and
took them to a nearby district office.
Madura's influential religious leader, Alawy Muhammad, accused
local government officials of committing the irregularities.
"They always blame the riots on a third party, but it is they
who cause them," Alawy said.
PPP deputy chairman Jusuf Syakir said that a team comprising
party secretary-general Tosari Wijaya, his deputy Bachtiar
Hamsyah and another party deputy chairman Zain Bedjeber would
leave for Madura today for a fact-finding mission.
Suryatna said that the institute welcomed any protests of
irregularities, and would relay them to the Election Supervision
Committee.
However, he regretted many reports of alleged violations had
been delivered to party leaderships and the press instead of the
institute.
"They (protesters) want to encourage an opinion that the
election has been marred by a lot of cheating," said Suryatna.
East Java police chief Maj. Gen. Sumarsono said yesterday that
order had been restored in Sampang and Pamekasan. Daily life had
returned to normal, although many shops were closed and security
forces were still on alert. (amd)