Panwaslu probes violation reports

JAKARTA (JP): The Election Supervisory Committee said it would continue to look into reports on election violations in eight provinces.

Deputy Chairman Todung Mulya Lubis said his committee has investigated election violations in North and Southeast Sulawesi and the next investigation would be directed at reports from South Kalimantan and South Sulawesi.

"Committee Chairman Soedarko and his team leaves for South Kalimantan today. This team will recommend necessary actions for handling violations in the two provinces," he said after meeting with chairs of the Provincial Election Committees of the eight provinces on Monday.

Todung said the violations in the eight provinces could be classified into three groups -- violations during the election day, during elections in the troubled province of Aceh and manipulations in tallying.

"Re-elections will be held in all areas where the elections were run unfairly and where they were run under threats and intimidation," Todung, a noted lawyer, said.

Todung, also the national coordinator of the University Network for Free and Fair Elections (Unfrel), added recounting of votes would be conducted in areas where vote-rigging was found. Elections in Aceh and reruns must be held this month, he said. Private observers have said a poll could not be conducted in Aceh before the conditions were safe. About 2 percent of the eligible voters turned up for the poll in a number of districts where they were held.

The eight provinces where election violations were reported are South Kalimantan, North Sulawesi, South Sulawesi, Southeast Sulawesi, Bengkulu, West and East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku.

In South Sulawesi, 37 political parties demanded the Provincial Election Committee to organize a rerun in North and South Luwu regencies because of numerous violations during the balloting day and the tallying.

Todung pledged the committee's work would be completed before July 8 -- the official date to announce final results for the House of Representatives and the lower level legislative bodies.

Miriam Budiardjo, a committee member, said the committee's late establishment also contributed to the late handling of accumulated cases.

"Violations have been rife since January while the Election Supervisory Committee was established late in March," she said.

Deputy chairman of the National Election Committee, Hasbalah M. Saad, who also attended the meeting, said many political parties declined to accept election results in many regions because of the late handling of election violations.

"All these factors have constituted a chain of weaknesses which have also contributed to the late process of the vote counting," he said, citing that until Monday, only about 60 percent of the total votes had reached the National Election Committee.

North Sulawesi

Todung, who led the supervisory committee team to investigate election violations in North Sulawesi, said his team recommended that reruns should be held in places where violations were found instead of the whole province.

Reports of violations particularly in Bitung, Bolaang Mongondow and Gorontalo regencies should first be verified by the regional committees.

He said during the balloting day, vote counting in a number of balloting places in the regencies were conducted at night using candle light and in the absence of witnesses from all political parties.

"It was also reported that many voters in the three regencies cast their votes under threats and intimidations and poll results in several sub-districts were manipulated," he said.

He said his team also recommended the regional Election Supervisory Committee in the three regencies to investigate alleged money politics committed by A.A. Baramuli, an executive of the ruling Golkar.

"If he is proven guilty of buying votes, the supervisory committee will ask President B.J. Habibie to take actions against him," he said.

Baramuli is also chairman of the Supreme Advisory Council. (rms/30)