Individuals mark ballot papers with personal code in gubernatorial election
Individuals mark ballot papers with personal code in gubernatorial election
Bambang Nurbianto and Ahmad Junaidi, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
A councillor from PDI Perjuangan's faction at the City Council
admitted on Tuesday that members of the faction had their own
code to mark the ballot papers in the recent gubernatorial
election.
Audi I. Z. Tambunan said the faction agreed to mark the ballot
papers with a code to conform with a directive from the party's
central board to elect governor Sutiyoso for the next term.
"Everyone had his or her own code," he said.
Sutiyoso received 47 votes from a total of 84 councillors who
cast their ballots. PDI Perjuangan has 30 seats in the council.
All councillors had to write the official names of the
candidates as stipulated by the election committee. In the case
of Sutiyoso, the name was H. Sutiyoso. H stands for Haj.
"The one with the bold H, was mine," Audi said.
According to Agus Darmawan of the National Mandate Party
(PAN), the coding indicated not only the practice of money
politics, but it was also a violation of the principle of secrecy
in the voting process.
"It means that the voting was not secret as there was an
intention to control councillors during the voting," Agus said.
"It could affect the validity of the election result," he
said.
Justice Party (PK) faction chairman Ahmad Heryawan supported
Agus' view, saying that, "if it's true that the ballots were
marked, it violates election' principles, including fairness and
secrecy."
A number of activists and several councillors, including Ugiek
Soegihardjo, one of a few PDI Perjuangan members who opposed
Sutiyoso, visited the home ministry on Monday, demanding that the
ministry annul the result of the election. They also demanded
that the ballot box be reopened to check the ballot papers.
The demand to reopen the ballot box was sparked by a statement
made by three councillors who witnessed the ballot counting. They
were Agus, Abdul Aziz Matnur of PK, and Syarifien Maloko of the
Crescent Star Party (PBB) faction. They said they observed coding
on the ballot papers for Sutiyoso and Fauzi Bowo, the elected
vice governor.
Their statement was made a day after Wednesday's election.
Agus said he did not immediately reveal the irregularities
because at that time he was not aware of the code.
Many city councillors, however, expressed their reluctance to
reopen the ballot box.
"If it is to be reopened it should be done at the City
Council's plenary session. The Council leaders cannot make a
decision on it," said Posman Siahaan of the Justice and Unity
Party (PKP) faction on Tuesday.
He also said that it was not necessary to reopen it as he
ballot counting was witnessed by representatives of 11 factions
in the City Council.
A similar statement was made by Audi and Koesnadi
Soesilohardjo from the PDI Perjuangan faction, and Ibnu Sumantri
of the Indonesian Military/National Police faction.
Ibnu, who is also deputy chairman of the election committee,
said the committee would meet on Wednesday to make decision on
whether the election result was acceptable or not.
"In my opinion, the committee should approve the election
result as after three days of public scrutiny, there have not
been any (valid) reports on money politics submitted to the
committee," he said.
Meanwhile, Heryawan, chairman of the PAN faction Nazamuddin,
and City Council Deputy Chairman Tarmidi Suhardjo of PDI
Perjuangan stated that he would not approve the result of the
election in protest of irregularities during the election.