Observers praise RI democratic poll

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.