PDI-P still leads at 15% of vote count

PDI-P still leads at 15% of vote count

JAKARTA (JP): Dogged by growing criticism for slow vote
counting and suspicion of rigging, the General Elections
Commission (KPU) completed a vote count on Thursday night at
least 15 percent of the approximately 112 million votes from
Monday's poll.

Megawati Soekarnoputri's Indonesian Democratic Party of
Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) maintained its lead, winning 4,688,718
votes as of 11.04 p.m. The National Awakening Party (PKB) came
second with 2,466,566 votes, while Golkar was in third place with
1,950,889 votes.

The ruling Golkar, however, reigned in at least five
provinces: West Nusa Tenggara, Central Sulawesi, Southeast
Sulawesi, South Sulawesi and Jambi. In Southeast Sulawesi, Golkar
was winning with 56,801 compared to PDI Perjuangan's 11,914.

Golkar ran hot on PDI Perjuangan's heels in the following
provinces: Riau, South Sumatra, Bengkulu, Lampung, West Java,
North Sulawesi, East Kalimantan, West Kalimantan, East Nusa
Tenggara, and Bali.

Provinces which have not sent in results to the election
commission are: Central Kalimantan, North Sumatra, Aceh, Maluku,
East Timor and Irian Jaya.

PKB was leading in East Java. The United Development Party
(PPP) was leading in Aceh, while the National Mandate Party (PAN)
led by Amien Rais occupied fifth place of the national vote tally
with 772,237 votes, but was leading in West Sumatra.

Meanwhile, Antara issued its own vote count using its sources.
By 6.15 p.m., PDI Perjuangan had grabbed more than 14 million
votes, it said, followed by Golkar with over eight million and
PKB with almost seven million.

Observers have blamed the slow pace in vote counting to
inexperienced poll workers, but in Serang municipality in Banten
regency, West Java, some parties have voiced suspicion of foul
play. The tallies for Golkar and PDI Perjuangan kept changing,
one PDI Perjuangan politician said.

Meanwhile, Dadang Hawari of the Election Supervisory Committee
(Panwaspus) said polling in a number of regions will have to be
repeated or held on another date following the discovery of
"deviations" during Monday's voting.

Dadang told Antara here on Thursday that the deviations
included cases where voters cast ballots more than once such as
what happened in Bolaang Mongondow district, North Sulawesi.

At certain polling places in Bolaang Mongondow there were also
ballot sheets that were already punctured before being folded and
handed to voters.

In North Luwu district, South Sulawesi, polling at a certain
location was interrupted by a pro-Golkar demonstration.

In Timika, Irian Jaya , there were cases in which polling
committees did the vote-counting in absence of necessary
witnesses.

In Surabaya, East Java, the representative of a certain
political party in a polling committee at a certain location
delivered a campaign speech before voters.

Golkar cadres in Wonosari, Yogyakarta, and in Sukohardjo,
Central Java, were found to have distributed money to voters
shortly before they cast ballots while in Lamongan, East Java,
activists of the People's Sovereignty Party (PDR) reportedly told
people those who voted for PDR would be rewarded with farming
credits.

In Buton district, Southeast Sulawesi, certain village chiefs
tried to persuade voters to cast ballots for a certain party by
intimidating them.

Voters at certain polling places in Medan, North Sumatra, and
in Bogor, West Java, were instructed by polling committee
officers to write names and addresses on ballot sheets.

In Bitung, North Sulawesi, and Gowa, South Sulawesi, a number
of political parties refused to accept results of the vote
counting on grounds there were too many deviations, and demanded
that polling be repeated.

In Hulu Sungai Utara, South Kalimantan, a number of political
parties refused to sign official documents on the polling results
in protest to a radiogram from Golkar that urged village chiefs
to persuade people to vote for the party.

Dadang said polling would also have to be carried out anew at
polling places where officers forgot to attach the required
stamps to ballot sheets or where they instructed voters to sign
or write names and addresses on the ballot sheets or allowed
people to cast ballots more than once.