Panwaslu reports election violations to police

Abdul Khalik and M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta

The official Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) has reported violations in the recent presidential election to police, including mass voter mobilization at Al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school in Indramayu, West Java.

Deputy chairman Rozy Munir said the Panwaslu had handed over all pertinent information to police for investigation into the violations.

He said violations included an excessive number of ballot stations. For example, an area that was assigned to have 20 stations had 83 poll stations instead.

In regards the Al-Zaytun incident, he said the committee had found several indications that voters mobilized there in support of Golkar presidential candidate Wiranto had violated the country's Criminal Code.

"We discovered that some voters had two voter's cards and cast two separate votes -- at Al-Zaytun and at a secondary venue. We also found that many voters were underaged," Rozy said.

Thousands of people were allegedly mobilized to vote for Wiranto-Solahuddin at Al Zaytun, where the number of voters had swelled from about 12,000 in the April 5 legislative election to nearly 25,000 voters at the July 5 presidential election.

General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin said on Tuesday the commission was set to invalidate votes from 83 poll stations that had been set up at Al-Zaytun.

"We will heed the decision of the West Java General Elections Commission (West Java KPUD), as what transpired at Al-Zaytun fell under their jurisdiction," Nazaruddin said at a press conference.

Since the KPU did not have complete information on the Al- Zaytun incident, it would summon the West Java and Indramayu KPUDs before finalizing the annulment, he added.

A meeting with regional election commissions is scheduled for Thursday.

KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah said in response to the KPUD's demand, the central commission would only recognize the same number of eligible votes as was cast in the April election.

"In the presidential run-off, eligible votes will number 11,565, not 24,818 as in the July 5 poll," he said.

Earlier, the General Elections Commission had said no rulings were breached in the registration of additional voters at the Islamic boarding school, and had even suggested that no vote- rigging took place.

Rozy said the Panwaslu would file an official report with police after Thursday's plenary meeting.

Aside from the Al-Zaytun case, Panwaslu found violations in the delible ink used to mark voters in many regions.

"Regional Panwaslu members have reported the case to the police, that the ink was gone only a minute after the voters left poll stations," said Rozy.

He said the delible ink was found at poll stations in Aceh, West Sumatra, East Java, Banten, West Java, Jakarta, Maluku, East Nusa Tenggara and Papua.

National Police deputy chief of detectives Insp. Gen. Dadang Garnida confirmed on Tuesday that many violations had occurred during the presidential election.

"We received a report from the Panwaslu that many crimes occurred during the election. For example, the committee said many ballot papers in Timika, Papua, had actually been punched before election day," said Dadang.