PKB supporter first up on election infraction
PKB supporter first up on election infraction
Evi Mariani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The country's first-ever trial for a violation of election rules
will start on Thursday at the Central Jakarta District Court, for
a supporter of a legislative candidate from the National
Awakening Party (PKB).
"The case is the first to be tried and I'm glad for it," the
deputy chairman of Central Jakarta General Elections Monitoring
Committee (Panwaslu), Dedi Suhardadi, was quoted as saying on
Tuesday by Tempo News Room.
The defendant is Adhi Hartono, who along with a group of other
people, has been accused of distributing pamphlets to a
congregation at a church in Kemayoran, Central Jakarta on
Christmas Eve, encouraging them to vote for PKB legislative
candidate AB Susanto.
The suspect was charged under Article 138 of Law No. 12/2003
on general elections, which carries a maximum punishment of three
months in prison.
This case is one of among 15 reported violations being handled
by the Jakarta Police.
Earlier in the day, City Police detective chief Sr. Comr.
Mathius Salempang said most of the cases were early campaigning
cases. The official campaign season runs from March 11 to April
1.
Two of the cases reported by Panwaslu were against legislative
candidates accused of trying to pass off fake diplomas.
The Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPUD Jakarta) has,
however, recorded at least 23 fake diploma cases.
A KPUD official, Hamdan Rasyid, said the commission would soon
report all those cases to the police.
"But we are currently considering whether to use the general
elections law or the Criminal Code," he said.
He added that the Criminal Code has more severe punishment for
faking documents. "The (election) law only sets a maximum
punishment of three months in jail, but the Criminal Code calls
for six years".
Hamdan admitted that the officials of the education ministry
had already verified that there were no records of the diplomas
for at least 23 legislative candidates.