Poll commission rules on revote at Al-Zaytun scholl

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.