Habibie greets EU election monitors
JAKARTA (JP): President B.J. Habibie thanked the European Union (EU) on Tuesday for dispatching a 135-member team to observe the June 7 general election, saying their presence would contribute significantly to Indonesia's campaign to hold free and fair elections.
"I hope that during your stay in our country, you will learn how the real conditions are," he told the EU team, led by John Gwyn Morgan, at Merdeka Palace.
The President assured the European observers the upcoming elections would be fair and internationally acceptable.
"I'm committed to the 1945 Constitution," the President said.
Habibie renewed his commitment to a direct presidential election by 2004, saying it is unfair to give responsibility for the fate of the country to 700 members of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR).
Almost all of the registered 528 foreign observers have arrived and are ready to monitor Monday's general election, said an official at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) Election Facilitation Center on Tuesday.
Susan Archibald, a UNDP poll technical adviser, said the foreign observers would be grouped under 14 international institutions, among them the EU, the American Chamber of Commerce, the Asian Network for Free Elections (Anfrel) and the Australian government.
Other delegations include the International Republican Institute, the Japanese government, the National Citizen Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel), the National Democratic Institute- Carter Center (NDI-Carter Center) and the New Zealand Embassy.
An NDI-Carter Center press statement said on Tuesday it would deploy a team of about 100 observers to monitor the elections. The team, whose duties are to observe the voting, ballot- counting and the transmission of the election results to the election data updating center, will be led by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter.
The statement said that most of the delegation members will arrive on Thursday. Meanwhile, a source at the Center told The Jakarta Post that Carter would arrive on Saturday and observe the elections in the greater Jakarta are.
Delegation members, who will be divided into 45 groups, will attend a two-day joint briefing by the General Elections Committee and party representatives in 26 provinces, excluding East Timor, before leaving for their designated deployment sites.
Delegation members include former U.S. ambassador to Indonesia Paul Wolfowitz, Asia Foundation president William Fuller, Carter Center expert on Indonesia Dwight King, NDI president for International Affairs Kenneth Wollack, former South African leader Tokyo Sexwale, South Korean parliament members Keun Tae Kim and Sang Woo Kim, Mexican Congress member Santiago Creel and secretary-general of Singapore's Democratic Party Chee Soon Juan.
Most Anfrel observers also have arrived here. Anfrel local staff member Mega Christina said they would leave on Tuesday for their deployment at sites in 18 provinces, including Aceh, West Kalimantan and Maluku provinces, where hundreds have been killed in violence in recent months.
"However, no specific areas in Aceh have been mentioned as they (observers) are still working out their security arrangements," said Mega, an activist of the Asian Network for Democracy in Indonesia.
Anfrel will be the only foreign observer group to monitor the elections in East Timor.
Meanwhile, Imelda Hutapea of Namfrel said the Philippine-based organization would not send its observers to Aceh, but she did not disclose the reason.
Japan announced on Tuesday it would send 20 observers to monitor the elections and also provide US$10 million financial assistance for the autonomy ballot in East Timor scheduled in August.
"The government of Japan decided to dispatch 20 election observers, headed by ambassador Sumio Edamura, former ambassador to Indonesia," said a foreign ministry statement.
The observers will arrive on Thursday for about one week.
Meanwhile, two EU observers have been touring Lampung and its surrounding regions since last week to monitor preparations for Monday's general election.
They met with local activists of the Independent Election Monitoring Body (KIPP), the Rectors Forum and the University Network for Free and Fair Elections (Unfrel).
Extra lines
In a bid to ensure the smooth and instantaneous transmission of election results, the International Foundation for Election System (IFES) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) have requested 150 telephone and 50 facsimile lines from state- owned telecommunication company PT Telkom.
PT Telkom's vice president Dodi Amarudien was quoted as saying by Antara in Bandung on Tuesday that lines would be installed at Aryaduta Hotel in Jakarta, where all international monitoring institutions are pooled for updated reports of election results nationwide.
Dodi said PT Telkom also provides similar services for the public through the toll-free telephone number 08001666666 and facsimile number 08001444444. (prb/anr/byg/imn)