PKS, PPP protest results

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) received on Wednesday its first complaint about poll results from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), which lashed out at the General Elections Commission (KPU) for failing to ensure a fair and transparent ballot count.

PKS campaign manager Muhammad Razikun told The Jakarta Post his party had lost an estimated 5 percent of the vote due to unfair treatment by the KPU during the count.

"It (the unfairness) occurred in many polling stations across the country and we are continuing to list it," he said after a meeting with Panwaslu chairman Komaruddin Hidayat and committee members Topo Santoso and Siti Noordjannah Djohantini.

Accompanied by colleagues, Razikun handed over documents containing details and evidence of unfair counting that, he alleged, had cost his party some votes in several parts of the country.

The PKS list included an incident in Johar Baru subdistrict, Central Jakarta, where some 1,000 ballot papers with perforations for the PKS inexplicably went missing, Razikun said.

Lost votes were also reported in Lampung, where the district poll committee (PPK) recorded only 88 of 663 votes the party claimed to have received.

"We have evidence and witnesses, both from the PKS and monitors," Razikun said.

Separately, the United Development Party (PPP) asked the KPU to do a recount, because many voters mistakenly perforated both pages of the ballot paper for the election of House of Representatives members.

"The mistake is a great loss to us, because the ballot papers were considered invalid," PPP deputy chairman Ali Marwan Hanan, told a media conference.

It also asked the KPU to stop reporting the continuing ballot counting until all delayed elections and poll reruns in the country had been completed.

"The ongoing tabulation could influence people who have not yet voted, and could persuade them to vote for parties that are in the lead," he said.

Delayed elections or poll reruns must be held by April 9.

In his response, Komaruddin asked all political parties to deploy their members to witness manual ballot counts before the results were sent to Jakarta.

The KPU will announce the election results based on a manual count.

Manipulation of election result data carries a maximum penalty of three years' imprisonment and a Rp 1 billion fine, under the law on elections.

In Bandung, a PPP legislative candidate, Kurdi Moekri, filed a protest with the West Java regional KPU because his name did not appear in the computerized tabulation of ballots.

Kurdi's name had been replaced by that of Burhanuddin Somawinata, a PPP legislative candidate for a different electoral district.

Sulut Toar Palilingan, chairman of the North Sulawesi election supervisory committee, said the election in the province was "full of unfairness" and demanded a rerun because the provincial KPU banned committee members from witnessing the count.

Separately, chief of the 23-strong Japanese government observation mission Takao Kawakami said in Jakarta his team noted with regret that voting on April 5 failed to take place in some areas for technical or security reasons.

"We fervently hope the remaining election process, including voting and counting in areas where voting and counting was postponed, and nationwide tabulation, will be carried out in a fair and faithful manner," he said at a media briefing on Wednesday.

However, he stressed that the voting and counting at each of 150 polling stations in six big cities the mission had visited was "free and fair".