Police warn of violence ahead of election
Police warn of violence ahead of election
Tiarma Siboro, Jakarta
Security authorities are stepping up efforts to ensure a safe and
peaceful presidential election runoff in September, warning of
the possibility of bombings and violence disrupting the vote.
Interim coordinating minister for political and security
affairs Hari Sabarno said political tension might increase when
the Constitutional Court rules on a legal challenge issued by
presidential candidate Wiranto over the results of July 5 polls.
"Political tension has already increased since the
Constitutional Court began hearing the case. I hope the court
will deliver a fair ruling that will not affect the election
runoff," Hari said.
The minister warned that violence could be sparked by angry
supporters of whichever candidate loses in the dispute.
"We can never predict what people at the grassroots level will
do. Whatever the verdict is, nobody can control them," he said.
Wiranto, who is running under the flag of the Golkar Party,
claims that he lost about 5.4 million votes due to irregularities
in the vote count for the July 5 election. He says that he beat
Megawati Soekarnoputri by about 120,000 votes and should face
leading vote-getter Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in the September
runoff.
Meanwhile, National Police chief Gen. Da'i Bachtiar said some
of the terror suspects accused of masterminding the Bali bombings
and the JW Marriott hotel blast in Jakarta are still at large and
have continued to recruit members to launch new attacks
nationwide.
Da'i said the terror suspects continued to move from place to
place, but that the police were tracking their movements.
He said the police would deploy 230,000 officers, or two-
thirds of its total force, to protect people and public
facilities during the runoff, including the office of the General
Elections Commission where a bomb went off on July 26.
Da'i said the police would also increase their presence in
conflict areas such as Papua, Aceh, Central Sulawesi and Maluku
for the runoff.