PPI vows to continue national ballot count

JAKARTA (JP): The National Elections Committee (PPI) vowed on Wednesday to continue the national ballot count despite the fact that a number of alleged cases of elections fraud and irregularities remained unsettled.

PPI chairman Jacob Tobing said after attending a General Elections Commission (KPU) plenary meeting the national vote count should be completed by the July 8 deadline set by the KPU.

"Besides the KPU's responsibility to clarify allegations of corruption involving its members, a failure to meet the deadline would tarnish its image," Jacob said.

PPI is an internal body of the KPU charged with the task of electoral administration.

Jacob, who is also of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan) representative on the 53-member KPU, said the investigation into alleged elections irregularities should not delay the vote count.

He said 15 provincial elections committees had submitted their poll results to the PPI.

The KPU will decide on Thursday whether to begin the national vote count or delay it until all allegations are resolved. The commission has established a special team to inventory and classify elections violations.

The commission pushed back the original June 21 deadline to begin the national ballot count because a number of provincial elections committees failed to submit their poll results.

The issue of whether to retain the July 8 deadline for the national vote tally dominated the plenary meeting on Wednesday. KPU chairman Rudini said the commission's meeting on Thursday would focus on when to commence the national vote count.

As of Wednesday evening, PDI Perjuangan was still in command in the KPU's provisional vote tally with 23.2 million votes, followed by Golkar Party with 12.3 million votes and the National Awakening Party with 11.2 million votes. Nearly 55 percent of an estimated 117 million ballots have been counted so far.

Earlier in the day, the commission decided to establish a special team to settle disputed vote-sharing agreements among political parties, known as stembus akoord.

The team is comprised of Sri Bintang Pamungkas of the Indonesian Democratic Union Party (PUDI), Sugito of the Indonesian Nation's National Party (PNBI), Hendry Kuok of the Democratic People's Party (PRD), Yahya C. Staquf of the National Awakening Party (PKB) and Saut Aritonang of the Indonesian Workers Party.

Jacob said the PPI had approved five vote-sharing agreements which were submitted to the committee. However, protests were lodged when the PPI allegedly approved a vote-sharing agreement which was submitted to the committee after the June 4 deadline for such agreements. The protesters also attacked the PPI's decision to allow certain parties to tie themselves to more than one vote-sharing deal.

Vote tabulation in some provinces came to a standstill on Wednesday as protests over alleged elections violations continued unabated.

The West Nusa Tenggara Provincial Elections Committee delayed its vote count for the third time after elections committee members from the Bima regency failed to arrive at the provincial committee's headquarters until midday.

Bima is the lone regency in the province which has not submitted its poll results to the provincial committee. Regency elections representatives have failed to submit elections results because they claim the elections were "malfeasance-plagued".

Provincial elections committee chairman Ahmad Taqiuddin lashed out at the members of the Bima elections committee, who sent him a fax declaring their rejection of the polls despite an earlier promise to come to the provincial capital of Mataram to endorse the poll results.

"They have placed their own interests above their responsibility to finish their works. This is a sort of unfair walkout because they complained about a vast range of offenses but failed to submit us reports (on the offenses)," Taqiuddin said.

However, he was optimistic the provincial elections committee would complete its vote count before July 6.

In Central Sulawesi, the local elections committee decided to send an incomplete vote count to the PPI after waiting for a week for four regencies to submit their poll results.

Committee chairman Basir Nursin said the poll results sent to Jakarta only included the vote count from Buol Tolitoli regency. He said a number of party representatives refused to accept the poll results in the regencies of Palu, Donggala, Banggai and Poso, citing alleged elections violations.

"It will be up to the PPI to respond to our decision," Basir said, adding that he had formed a team to verify the allegations.

Meanwhile, the South Sulawesi elections committee was awaiting poll results from the regencies of Sidrap and Luwu before beginning the provincial vote count.(30/38/49/imn)