PPP chapters free to decide on election results
JAKARTA (JP): The Central Executive Board of the United Development Party (PPP) says it will not give a blanket response to last month's election results, and will let its regional chapters and branches decide for themselves.
Speaking at the party's headquarters yesterday, deputy secretary-general Bachtiar Chamsyah said the decision was made after a five-day leadership meeting which ended Monday.
The decision was issued, and the PPP's 27 chapters duly informed, Tuesday.
"We told PPP chapters and branches to absorb and channel their members' aspirations before making their own decisions about the poll results," he said.
Most PPP chapters and branches were likely to endorse the results, Bachtiar said.
"But we will not prevent any chapter or branch from rejecting the results if they want. We will back their decision," he said.
A number of PPP chapters and branches, alleging vote-rigging and irregularities in vote counting, have called on their leaders in Jakarta to boycott the next stage of the election process: the signing of the final results.
The Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), the other minority party that contested the May 29 election, is also considering staying away from the signing ceremony at national level when the final nationwide vote count is announced on June 23.
The results must first be endorsed throughout the country at regency, then provincial level before they are endorsed at national level.
The General Elections Institute has said the vote count results will be valid even if they are not endorsed by any of the parties.
Bachtiar said every chapter and branch had its own problems and views on the election results, and these could not be generalized as the party's universal stance.
He cited the PPP's West Sumatra chapter and the Sampang branch in Madura, East Java, as examples. Both have publicly announced their intention of rejecting the poll results.
Only four of the 14 PPP branches in West Sumatra have signed the official report on the poll results in the province, he said.
Ballot counting in West Sumatra was marred by allegations that the signature of Padang's branch chairman, which appeared on the final vote count, was forged.
The Jakarta chapter, which has threatened not to sign the official results report, has not confirmed this.
The Sampang branch has rejected the election rerun results and will not take up its seats in the regional legislative council.
Golkar scored a comfortable victory with 60 percent of the valid ballots in the Sampang election rerun last Wednesday. The area has traditionally been a PPP stronghold.
Based on the provisional results of the count, Golkar has won 74 percent of the valid votes, PPP 22 percent and PDI 3 percent. By a rough estimate, the results translate into 325 seats in the House of Representatives for Golkar, 90 seats for PPP and 10 seats for PDI. One seat remains unallocated.
The Armed Forces, whose members did not vote, will take up the other 75 seats in the 500-strong House.
Bachtiar said PPP's central board will meet this week to discuss whether or not to endorse the election results.
In a related development, PPP's Central Java chapter said yesterday it would wait for a decision from all 35 branches in the province before making known whether or not it would accept the election results.
"So far 10 PPP branches have endorsed the poll results," chapter chairman Karmani said.
Central Java branches have until tomorrow to decide whether or not to endorse the election. (imn/har)