Parties threaten to reject polls as counting deadline nears

JAKARTA (JP): Political parties alleging vote-rigging in the provinces intensified their threats to reject the elections, only four days away from the deadline for national ballot counting.

The latest threat came from an alliance of 30 minor parties in East Java, 25 parties in Central Java and 25 parties in North Sumatra. Meanwhile, more reports of alleged poll-rigging continued to stream in to Jakarta, with the Golkar Party still the chief alleged perpetrator.

In the North Sumatra capital of Medan, leaders of 25 political parties said after a meeting at the Medan Club late Tuesday they would reject the elections unless the provincial election supervisory committee satisfactorily explained the numerous instances of rule violations.

In an unusual twist, the motion was also supported by Golkar, the usual target of vote-rigging all over the country. Other major parties calling for an explanation were the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the National Awakening Party (PKB), the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the United Development Party (PPP).

Spokesman for the parties Zulfan Effendi said that gross violations of electoral rules had taken place in the area. The alleged transgressions included inadequate ballots, witnesses not receiving vote tallies at polling places, the number of ballots higher than that of registered voters and people attending polls without registration cards.

He said most of the violations occurred in the Medan mayoralty.

In Central Java, 25 minor political parties threatened to reject the polls. They demanded a repeat of the process, alleging the June 7 elections were "not democratic".

Novel Ali, deputy chief of the provincial election supervisory committee, said the 25 parties were those which obtained less than 1,000 votes.

"If they do reject the polls, it would be deplorable. We would have to consider repeating the elections," he said.

The political parties also rejected the minimum 2 percent vote requirement in order to qualify for the next elections.

In Surabaya, 30 minor parties joined forces demanding that the election supervisory committee take action against those breaching electoral rules. In addition, they demanded that parties which received less than 2 percent of the vote retain their right to exist.

The electoral law states that a political party requires a minimum of 2 percent of the vote to survive as a viable political organization.

"We insist the electoral law be reviewed," said Andi Sudirman, one of the party leaders who issued a joint statement on Wednesday.

Among the petitioners were the United Party, the Abul Yatama Party, the Indonesian Muslim Awakening Party (KAMI), the Indonesian People's Party (Pari), the Love the Nation Democratic Party (PDKB), the Republican Party and the New Indonesia Party (PIB).

In a separate development, the Democratic People's Party (PRD) in Surabaya and 20 parties in Timor Tengah Selatan regency in East Nusa Tenggara insisted on Wednesday the Golkar Party be disqualified from the elections for allegedly rigging the polls.

PRD activists in Surabaya also demanded a similar ruling be applied to the People's Sovereignty Party (PDR), which is linked to the Minister of Cooperatives and Small Enterprises Adi Sasono.

The 20 political parties in Timor Tengah Selatan regency claimed they had evidence the local sociopolitical affairs chief L. Latole, misused his position to endorse Golkar.

In South Sulawesi, the provincial elections committee was yet to decide if it would succumb to the demand of 46 parties for a poll repeat, despite having ample evidence of violations.

Committee chairman Yunus Tekeng said his team, which recently completed a fact-finding mission to 23 regencies across South Sulawesi, had found many violations committed by Golkar and by government officials favoring the Golkar Party.

The provisional vote tabulation shows that Golkar has taken a comfortable lead, far ahead of its rivals, PPP and PDI Perjuangan.

In Soreang subdistrict, South Sulawesi, poll committee officials stopped counting ballot papers from villages to protest the local government's failure to provide payment for the work.

"We will not resume counting until we get our payment," Soreang subdistrict elections committee spokesman Sudirman told Antara Wednesday.(40/har/nur/27/39/pan)