National vote count still undecided

JAKARTA (JP): The General Elections Commission (KPU) and the Indonesian Elections Committee (PPI) have failed to reach an agreement on the date of the initial ballot count and will discuss the subject in a plenary meeting on Monday.

PPI chairman Jacob Tobing said after the plenary meeting with the KPU on Friday that in the meantime the elections committee would stick to the original schedule.

While the committee had earlier said it was ready to start the count based on completed results from at least six provinces, the commission said there were still too many unsettled complaints in various regions.

"While waiting for the completion of the inventory on suspected cheating and irregularities ... we'll stick to the July 6 deadline," Jacob said, referring to the date when results for the House of Representatives and the provincial and regional legislative bodies were to be announced.

The start of tallying by the official election bodies should have started on June 21. Geographical factors and slow cross- checking of tallying documents have also contributed to the delay of provincial reports.

Jacob acknowledged that as well as unresolved instances of alleged violations, there were also a few cases in which polling officials were holding reports "hostage" because they had not received wages. The commission stipulated Rp 40,000 payments for polling place heads, and lower fees for members.

KPU member Andi A. Mallarangeng said the degree of election fraud and irregularities varied, but involved almost all of the leading political parties.

"A preliminary report provided by the KPU's special team found that alleged cheating and irregularities were not only dominated by the Golkar Party, but also by the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan)," he said, declining to specify details of the complaints.

On Tuesday, an 11-member team of the KPU was assigned to list complaints of fraud and irregularities. The team is to coordinate with the official Election Supervisory Committee.

KPU deputy chairman Adnan Buyung Nasution has denied that by forming the team, the KPU conducted supervisory duties the law assign to the poll watchdogs.

A preliminary report of election evaluation by the official poll watchdog revealed that almost all parties contesting the polls violated electoral laws and regulations. (imn)