Poll commission rules on revote at Al-Zaytun scholl

M. Taufiqurrahman, Jakarta

After a five-hour meeting, the General Elections Commission (KPU) decided on Thursday to allow over 11,000 registered voters at the Al-Zaytun Islamic boarding school in Indramayu regency, West Java, to recast their ballots in the presidential election.

The decision was made after the KPU, the West Java General Elections Commission, the Indramayu General Elections Commission and the Elections Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) agreed that over 13,000 of the 24,825 people who cast their ballots at the boarding school in the July 5 presidential election did not have local identification cards or letters from their local poll committees giving them approval to vote at the boarding school.

"The KPU must hold a repeat ballot for any poll station where ineligible voters have been given a chance to cast their votes. In the case of Al-Zaytun, over 13,000 voters were not residents of the boarding school, as proven by their identity cards," KPU vice chairman Ramlan Surbakti said.

The meeting found that 13,000 of the people who cast their ballots at Al-Zaytun were not registered to vote there, nor did they possess a letter from their local poll committee giving them approval to vote at an alternative polling station.

Ramlan said the repeat ballot, which should be organized by July 5 at the latest, would involve only the 11,565 registered voters at the boarding school. That figure was obtained from the April 5 legislative election.

Earlier, the KPU denied allegations voters had been mobilized to cast their ballots at the Islamic school and said no regulations had been breached there.

Local election commission members had said that almost 25,000 people who cast their votes inside Al-Zaytun had been registered by poll committee members in the area as early as May.

The presidential candidate for the Golkar Party, Wiranto, garnered a total of 24,794 votes at poll stations located inside Al-Zaytun, which is said to be the largest Islamic boarding school in Southeast Asia.

Ramlan said there would be no trouble organizing a new poll inside the school as the KPU was still in possession of election materials and all of the costs would be covered by the commission.

"We also hope that officials at Al-Zaytun will help us organize the poll as the repeat ballot could also help mend the school's tarnished image from vote rigging allegations," he said.

Panwaslu member Topo Santoso welcomed the KPU's decision, adding that the voter registration process that had led to the Al-Zaytun fiasco was in flawed from the very beginning.

"We suggested that the KPU hold a repeat ballot for poll stations in Al-Zaytun. And now that the repeat ballot will take place, we will monitor the electoral process right from the balloting through the vote counting," he said.