PPI vows to continue national ballot count

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)