More watchers needed: Cetro

More watchers needed: Cetro

Kurniawan Hari, Jakarta

Poll watchdogs have urged presidential candidates to allocate a
big chunk of their budgets to deploy witnesses to polling
stations, and during ballot counting, to prevent vote-rigging in
the July 5 election.

Smita Notosusanto, the director of the Center for Electoral
Reform (Cetro), said vote-rigging was either overlooked or
unproven in the April 5 legislative election due to a lack of
witnesses.

"Those improprieties took place apparently because most
political parties did not assign their members to witness the
whole process of ballot counting," she told The Jakarta Post here
on Sunday.

She suggested that presidential candidates reduce their
campaign budgets to train and deploy witnesses.

Ray Rangkuti of the Independent Committee for Election
Monitoring (KIPP) said witnesses would play a more pivotal role
in the presidential election.

KIPP data revealed 446 cases of irregularities in the general
election, many of which involved election committee members,
while others were because of the absence of witnesses.

Separately, a member of the Election Supervisory Committee
(Panwaslu) Didik Supriyanto urged political parties and
presidential candidates to select only competent witnesses.

"The witnesses must have integrity otherwise they will take
bribes," he told the Post.

Didik added that the official supervision committee had
demanded that for the presidential election the General Elections
Commission (KPU) post a copy of the vote tally for each polling
station in a public place for the sake of transparency.

Smita said ballot counting in remote villages and subdistricts
might last for days, therefore presidential candidates and
parties must allocate extra money for witnesses' meals.

"Problems mostly occur during the vote-counting in villages or
subdistricts. So, there must be more witnesses deployed," she
said.