Panwaslu reports alleged pro-Susilo fraud

Panwaslu reports alleged pro-Susilo fraud

Abdul Khalik, Jakarta

The Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) filed a police
report on Thursday over alleged election violations by staff
members at the Indonesian Consulate General in Tawau, East
Malaysia.

Panwaslu member Mashudi Ridwan alleged that consulate staff
punched some 8,000 ballots for presidential candidate Susilo
Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate Jusuf Kalla.

"The East Kalimantan Election Supervisory Committee discovered
that several members of the Tawau staff and poll station
committee members punched the 8,000 ballots before the election.
They voted for candidate No. 4," said Mashudi, referring to
Susilo's ballot number.

Susilo was one of five presidential candidates contesting the
country's first ever direct presidential election on July 5. The
others were Wiranto, Megawati Soekarnoputri, Amien Rais and
Hamzah Haz.

Susilo currently leads the provisional vote tally with 33.5
percent of the approximately 105 million votes that have been
counted. Megawati is trailing in second with 26.2 percent,
followed by Wiranto with 22.1 percent.

Mashudi declined to provide the names of anyone involved in
the fraud, saying Panwaslu and the police were still
investigating the case.

He said local Panwaslu members were coordinating with Tawau
Police liaison officers to investigate the alleged violation
before turning over the case to the National Police.

Brig. Gen. Bambang Aris of the National Police confirmed that
he and his team would soon be leaving for Tawau to see if there
was sufficient evidence to proceed with the investigation.

He said the police could not yet declare anybody a suspect
because they had not carried out an investigation.

"We will go to Tawau and check the report first. We cannot say
anything before we investigate the alleged fraud there. But if
the violation did occur we will name suspects as soon as
possible," said Bambang.

He said National Police officers had to travel to Tawau to
protect local Panwaslu members because there were reports that
the members were being threatened to cancel their report.

There are allegations of similar election fraud benefiting
Susilo in Timika, Papua. In this case, two subdistrict poll
officials allegedly punched 3,200 ballot papers for Susilo.

The fraud was discovered by local authorities and the two
subdistrict officials have been detained for questioning.

Susilo won by a landslide at several polling stations in
Mimika subdistrict, Timika.

The two suspects, who have been identified as Edward Wenda and
Pasmin Weya, reportedly told police they were paid by Susilo's
campaign team in Timika to commit election fraud for Susilo.

Asked whether Susilo's campaign team might have bribed the
consulate staff, Mashudi and Bambang said they could not
speculate on that and had to investigate the matter first.

"We will investigate the possibility of their involvement in
the fraud. However, we have no idea right now," said Bambang.