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.