Poll watchdog denies calling for boycott

BOGOR (JP): The unrecognized Independent Election Monitoring Committee denied yesterday circulating anonymous leaflets urging townspeople to boycott the May 29 general election.

Heri Soba, secretary of the committee's local chapter, said boycotting the general election was not on the organization's agenda as the authorities seemed to think.

"We don't know anything about the leaflets," Heri said after he saw the head of the Bogor regency administration's sociopolitical affairs department, Didi Wiardi.

Heri met with Didi after he was twice summoned for an interview concerning the anonymous leaflets that had enraged the government and security authorities.

Last week the police said they had seized 17 of the leaflets, in which the independent poll watchdog and the Democratic People's Party (PRD) were mentioned.

PRD is an unrecognized party whose leaders are currently on trial for subversion, which carries a maximum penalty of death. Eleven of them have been charged with attempting to replace Pancasila and sowing hatred of the government.

Heri said his committee's job was to monitor the upcoming election and report any violations to the public.

"We want to help make the election smooth and free from violations," Heri told The Jakarta Post. "We want to cooperate with the public to achieve that."

Didi said the authorities would continue to track down who had circulated the pamphlets.

"Somebody must have put up the leaflets," he said. "It was certainly not done by a ghost."

Antara reported that security authorities in Bandung were on full alert in anticipation of mass riots threatened by anonymous pamphlets.

The leaflets said rioters would turn Bandung into a "sea of fire" yesterday, as the nation remembered March 11, 1966, the day the then president Sukarno ordered Lt. Gen. Soeharto to restore order.

Security personnel, both in plain clothes and uniformed, were deployed in public places. No incidents were reported. (pan/24)