Most parties disobeyed rules: Poll watchdog

JAKARTA (JP): The Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) announced on Saturday almost all of the 48 political parties contesting the general election on Monday have violated various election rules.

In a press statement evaluating the 16-day-long election campaigning which ended Friday, the body said: "We are disappointed and surprised to find that almost all of the contestants have violated the election laws and regulations."

Reading out the evaluation, committee member Dadang Hawari said the contestants violated both traffic and the General Election Committee's (KPU) regulations when they mobilized supporters from one area to another and staged street rallies.

The rallies badly congested traffic in various cities and disrupted people's social and economic activities. In Jakarta alone, some 70 percent of public transportation could not operate during the campaigning.

Other violations, he said, concerned the content of speeches of politicians and slogans of supporters, which disparaged other parties or their leaders.

Dadang said the majority of the contestants also ignored a law which prohibits the use of government and religious facilities, including subdistrict offices and mosques, for campaigning.

The committee's deputy chairman Todung Mulya Lubis revealed that most of the contestants were also involved in "money politics" during the election campaigning.

"Almost all of the election contestants were involved in money politics. The only difference is the degree of their involvement, big or small," he said.

Lubis said the majority of the contestants committed "small- scale money politics" by promising supporters "transportation allowances" if they showed up at the parties' campaign sessions.

He alleged big-scale money politics were committed by Golkar Party, the People's Sovereignty Party (PDR) and the United Development Party (PPP), who reportedly misused the Social Safety Net Fund for their campaign activities.

Another committee member, Arief Rachman, announced from the organization's provisional report that there were 30,539 cases of traffic violations and 4,489 cases of "administrative and methodology violations".

He also said there were 12,783 cases of disputes among contestants, 420 of which were settled on the spot, while the rest were brought either to election committees or the district courts nationwide.

In a related development, some 100 volunteers of the National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (Namfrel) were dispatched Saturday to 41 towns and cities in six provinces: Jakarta, West, Central and East Java, Yogyakarta and Bali. The six provinces were believed to represent 64 percent of Indonesia's total voting population of 130 million.

The Philippines-based poll watch, which will be assisted by the Independent Election Monitoring Committee (KIPP), the University Network for a Free and Fair Election (Unfrel) and the Rector's Forum, will cover a sample of 76,821 polling stations.

Namfrel volunteers will be led by chairman Jose Concepcion, Jr.

Team members include former Philippines envoy to Cambodia Gen. (ret) Thelmo Cunanan and Namfrel executive director Telibert Laoc.

On Friday, Indonesian Military Chief (TNI) Gen. Wiranto told leaders of the Asian Network for Free Elections (Anfrel) that security was tight and would permit the elections.

"General Wiranto assured us in the meeting that the overall situation is very good," read Anfrel's press statement, copies of which were made available to the media on Saturday.

The seven-member delegation, representing Anfrel's 75 observers from 18 countries in Asia, Europe and North America, was led by head of Anfrel's mission Gen. (ret) Sayud Kerdphol.

Wiranto told the visiting delegation that the military will remain neutral and stand from the same distance as all of the election contestants.

"The Indonesian Military will remain neutral in Monday's election and is committed to see a free and fair election," he said.

Asked about the situation in Aceh and the possibility of postponing the election in other critical areas, he said the incidents of violence were only in Aceh's isolated areas.

"Meanwhile, the security situation in East Timor and the Maluku's capital of Ambon is good," he said. (imn)