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)