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.