Observers praise RI democratic poll
Fabiola Desy Unidjaja and M. Taufiqurrahman, The Jakarta Post/Jakarta
Overseas election observers from the Carter Center and European Union (EU) praised on Wednesday the first ever direct presidential election in Indonesia as genuinely democratic and peaceful.
In separate meetings with President Megawati Soekarnoputri, the observers noted that a number of changes needed to be made to improve the country's electoral process in the future.
"This election has been a tremendous success and a huge accomplishment ... It is the largest free election to have taken place in only one day. We congratulate the people and leaders of Indonesia for the successful conduct of the election," Douglas Peterson of the Carter Center told journalists after a meeting with Megawati.
He said that Monday's presidential election was transparent and that there were no discrepancies that could have an impact on the poll outcome.
"We congratulated her (Megawati) for the direct presidential election. It is a very historic event in this country," Peterson added.
A similar comment came from EU election monitoring delegation chief Glyn Ford, who said his team's report showed that the election had been very successful.
"We will present the report tomorrow (Thursday) ... it says that the election was genuinely democratic," Ford said after a 20-minute meeting with the President, who is facing almost certain defeat at the hands of Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, her former chief security minister.
The foreign observers had also lauded the legislative polls on April 5 and the first round of the presidential election on July 5 as democratic and peaceful.
The successful elections make Indonesia the third largest democracy in the world, they said.
However, the observers highlighted a number of points that needed to be taken into consideration by Indonesia, such as a longer campaign for the last two candidates in the final round of the presidential election.
"It has to be made certain that the candidates have an opportunity to present their views and manifestos," Peterson said.
Another area that needed to be improved, according to the Carter Center, concerned the identification of voters in order to ensure that those eligible to vote were able to exercise their democratic rights.
Peterson also said that polling stations needed to stay open longer to provide more opportunities for people to vote.
Polling stations were required to stay open until 1 p.m. on Monday but some closed before the deadline, leaving many registered electors unable to vote.
The Center's observers monitored the election runoff in 31 out of the country's 32 provinces, including troubled Aceh, Papua and Maluku provinces.
Despite the positive assessment, the Center's monitoring team will stay in the country to observe the next stages of the historic election.
Meanwhile, local poll observer, the Center for Electoral Reform (Cetro), announced its preliminary finding that although Monday's election was held in an orderly and peaceful manner, it was still rife with problems concerning the balloting procedures applied by election officers.
Cetro executive director Smita Notosusanto said that various oversights had disenfranchisement many voters in a number of areas.
"Many polling stations closed early, even though all the registered voters had not yet cast their ballots," she said.