PPP begins review of election results

JAKARTA (JP): Executives from the Moslem-based United Development Party (PPP) gathered yesterday to discuss the party's stance on the election result, and are expected to issue a statement today.

The party's leaders, after crying foul over the way voting was conducted in some areas, were still undecided whether to accept the result of a revote in Madura island's Sampang regency in East Java.

PPP's Sampang chapter has openly rejected the revote in which only 58.1 percent of the electorate voted. Golkar won 60 percent of the vote.

None of the party's branch leaders at the two-day meeting had demanded revotes in their areas. However, as of yesterday afternoon, eight chapters had alleged that local election organizers cheated during voting.

The chapters were Aceh, Bengkulu, Lampung, West Sumatra, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara, Southeast Sulawesi, and North Sulawesi. Three of the eight chapters said they would not accept the final results in their regions.

Earlier this week, 23 local offices of the party's South Sulawesi branch rejected the poll results.

The PPP's deputy chairmen, Zein Badjeber and Ali Hardi Kiaidemak, jointly said the party leaders would decide what legal or political action would be taken over the alleged widespread cheating.

"If we find adequate evidence of criminal elements in an alleged poll rigging, for instance, we'll pursue legal action. If not, we'll find a political way," Kiaidemak said.

Badjeber said "vote rigging, electoral law violations, and other kinds of cheating had been reported by our chapters.

"Most chapter leaders were surprised by this year's cheating, which was the most blatant in our election history," he said.

Despite the rampant cheating, PPP supporters had reacted differently, he said.

"In Sampang regency, people reacted spontaneously to poll cheating (by rioting), while in Bengkulu or in Lampung, for instance, our supporters only took notes and reported the violations here today," he said.

The government had said the revote in Sampang was not conducted because of the local PPP chapter's complaints, but because some ballot boxes were burned in election day rioting.

Both Badjeber and Kiaidemak said demanding a revote in areas where cheating allegedly occurred would be "technically and politically impossible now."

Separately, 70 ulemas in Madura expressed concern yesterday over what happened on the island during the election.

They called on all parties to learn from what happened and to seek God's guidance.

As of 5 p.m. yesterday, the provisional election results showed Golkar had won 74.36 percent of the votes counted, PPP 22.58 percent, and rift-ridden Indonesian Democratic Party 3.06 percent.

Over 112 million votes, or 89.9 percent, have been counted.

The final results are expected to be announced tomorrow, while the chairmen of the three election contestants are expected to approve and sign the final results on June 23.

PPP spokesman Usamah Hisyam said the party would decide today whether to approve and sign the document.

"We'll use our chapters' reports as input to suggest amendments to the electoral laws. For instance, the local polling committees should have the representatives from all the competing parties," Usamah said.

"Now that PPP has more seats in the House of Representatives, we look forward to improving the laws," he said. (nur/aan)