KPU blocks local Panwaslu access to information: Official

KPU blocks local Panwaslu access to information: Official

Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

Forty percent of 416 regency offices of the Elections Supervisory
Committee (Panwaslu) have had difficulty obtaining the necessary
information from the General Elections Commission (KPU),
affecting their efforts to detect any violations of the election
process.

Panwaslu member Topo Santoso said on Monday that election
supervisors in the provinces of Central Java, Bangka and
Belitung, as well as those in a number of provinces in Sumatra
had reported the lack of access to the information.

"If we have no access ... our supervision will be weak and
depend solely on public reports," he told a press conference.

The complaints were raised during the recent plenary meeting
between Panwaslu officials across the country, Topo said.

He urged the KPU to immediately increase access, particularly
because the factual verification of political parties started
last week.

The chairman of Central Java's Panwaslu office, Nur Hidayat
Sardini, said the difficulties were experienced by most of the
election supervisory committees in regencies and mayoralties
under his auspices.

"There is visible fear among local KPU that election
supervisors will taint the legitimacy of the results of its
verification job," he said.

Just to mention one example, he said the chairman of
Panwaslu's Banyumas office was denied a meeting with local KPU
members to discuss the planned field verification of electoral
candidates on Oct. 20.

Nur Hidayat also said that KPU officials in Klaten refused to
follow up the local Panwaslu's findings on alleged violations
committed by regional representative candidates during screening.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said the commission had no
intention to block Panwaslu's access to information.

"It depends on the types of information required by local
Panwaslu. If it is related to possible crimes committed by
electoral candidates, then we will definitely provide the
information about the candidates.

"But when it comes to all documents related to electoral
candidates, we do not have enough funds to copy the documents,"
Ramlan said.

He promised to look into the complaints filed by Panwaslu to
seek the best solutions to the problems.

The KPU has been verifying regional representative candidates
and political parties registered for the general election, which
will end on Nov. 30 and Nov. 20 respectively.

On Dec. 2 the KPU will announce which parties qualify for the
general election, followed by the announcement of definite
regional representative candidates on Dec. 9.

Indonesia will elect legislative members on April 5, 2004 and
the president on July 5, with the possible run-off on Sept. 20.

Topo insisted Panwaslu would go ahead with its plan to file
reports with police over any alleged crimes committed by
electoral candidates.

"We will leave the cases to the law enforcers to follow up.
Let the people judge the work of the law enforcers," he said.

Nur Hidayat said Panwaslu in Central Java had so far filed
three reports against regional representative candidates with
local police over alleged money politics and duplication of
identity cards without the consent of the owners, specifically in
Semarang, Rembang and Klaten.

Later in the day, KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin revealed
that the House of Representatives budget committee had
recommended that the government cut KPU budget by Rp 900 billion
to Rp 3 trillion.

Nazaruddin said if the government heeded the House's advice,
the KPU would cancel its plan to raise honorarium of the
elections officials at village level and would reduce the fund
spent on dissemination of election-related information to the
public.