Poll watchdog crack down on electoral violators
Poll watchdog crack down on electoral violators
The Jakarta Post, Pekanbaru/Makassar/Lampung
Election supervisory bodies in the provinces of Riau and South Sulawesi have started to crack down on violators of rulings on the campaign period, while legislative candidates found to have committed fraud have also been reported to the police.
The Riau provincial Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) has reported three legislative candidates to the police for violating campaign rules. Riau Panwaslu member Ahmad Jamaan said candidates from the Riau and Riau Islands provinces had started campaigning before the official kick-off in March.
He said the misdemeanors involved spreading brochures urging people to vote for a particular candidate and using the media to promote a candidate's platform. Two candidates were implicated in these violations, he said, one of whom had also attached a fraudulent high school certificate in his application.
Another candidate had also committed fraud, Ahmad said, by including falsified IDs and forged signatures among the minimum 2,000 signatures of supporters required to validate each candidacy.
"Several people mentioned on the list told us they had never declared their support, nor had they given copies of their IDs," he said.
A clause under Article 138 of Elections Law No. 12/2003 stipulates that anyone violating the election schedule is subject to punishment of 15 days to three months in prison or a fine of between Rp 100,000 to RP 1 million.
Legislative candidates should be familiar with the law, Ahmad said, but declined to name the suspect candidates. He added that Article 141 of the law stipulates additional punishment equal to a third of criminal sentences for those found to have committed violations knowingly and deliberately.
In South Sulawesi, the Panwaslu of the Maros regency, Makassar, alleged that aid disbursed by the Golkar Party for victims of recent floods there was "disguised campaigning".
On Dec. 29, Golkar chairman Akbar Tandjung presented Rp 15 million to flood victims, while Golkar headquarters and two Golkar candidates from Maros each contributed 15 tons of rice. Two other Golkar candidates in Maros donated a total of Rp 10 million, and the party's Maros chapter presented one truckload of instant noodles to regent Nadjamuddin Aminullah, who is chairman of the Golkar chapter in Maros.
The regent could not be reached for comment on Wednesday.
Maros Panwaslu supervisory head Zainal Karta said the committee was verifying all cases related to emergency aid.
In the floods late last month, at least three were killed and 3,000 made homeless, while almost 3,000 hectares of rice fields and 4,500 hectares of fish and shrimp ponds were destroyed.
Head of South Sulawesi Panwaslu Aswanto said almost all political parties had been involved in various violations, mainly involving disguised campaigning.
In Bandar Lampung, several Golkar executives threatened on Wednesday to resign in protest over the party's list of legislative candidates, and demanded that the head of the Bandar Lampung chapter, Riza Mirhadi, be fired.
Similar demands were aired by some 700 party cadres from East Lampung, Central Lampung, Metro and Bandar Lampung, who protested at Golkar's provincial headquarters in Lampung.
They demanded to meet Lampung party head Jajuli Isa, but were told he was sick.