PPP has evidence of poll rigging attempts

JAKARTA (JP): The United Development Party (PPP) stood by its recent allegation of poll rigging attempts, but said it had faith in the government's handling of the problem.

"We have evidence to back up our allegation," said PPP Secretary-General Tosari Widjaya in a press conference here Saturday.

"(Despite the reported poll rigging attempt), we still believe in the government and the organizers of the election at both the national and local level," said chairman Ismail Hasan Metareum at the same press briefing.

"It's now up to the Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M. (as to what to do)," he said.

Ismail alleged Wednesday that a subdistrict head in Sumatra had already decided the May 29 election results for his region.

Ismail quoted an "authentic document" showing that the official had allotted Golkar 86.29 percent of the subdistrict's votes, the PPP 7 percent and the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI) 6.71 percent.

Though Ismail did not say the subdistrict was in Bengkulu, it later became apparent that he was referring to Mulyadi Wadjis, the Gading Cempaka subdistrict head in Bengkulu. Mulyadi, in his capacity as a local Golkar official, was responsible for the "election results".

Bengkulu Governor Adjis Achmad, who is also chairman of the General Election Committee's provincial office, and Nawawi Effendi, chairman of the Election Supervision Committee's local office, denied the allegation. They said what Ismail cited as proof was a fake document.

Dailami, an official at the General Elections Institute, also responded to the allegation. He said the subdistrict head was only making projections of Golkar's votes in the region.

Armed Forces Chief of Sociopolitical Affairs Lt. Gen. Syarwan Hamid criticized the PPP for making the matter public rather than reporting the alleged manipulation to the chairman of the General Elections Institute, who is also the Minister of Home Affairs Moch. Yogie S.M.

Ismail said he had reported the matter to Yogie.

Questions surrounding the document grew after several officials said it was "a projection sheet" of Golkar achievement which should not have been leaked in the first place. They said the word "projection" or "estimation" had been erased from the document by whoever leaked it.

Tosari said the document could not have been a projection, as it also included the number of "spoiled votes". The report also did not have a space in which the word "estimation" could have been written.

The PPP secretary-general lashed out at the subdistrict head for "improper activities".

"(The document) was an election result that could only be released after election day. Why did he make up such a report when campaigning is not over yet?" he said.

Minister

Tosari said the PPP central board had officially reported the alleged poll rigging attempt earlier last week to the government.

"We sent the letter so that (Yogie) could take action against the subdistrict head and prevent similar incidents from taking place in other regions.

"But why did other officials issue a response to our letter?" Tosari said.

He also questioned the relevance of a Golkar leader's statement to the PPP allegation.

Deputy chairman of Golkar Agung Laksono said last week the allegation was baseless and every political group had a right to estimate their number of votes.

Ismail said Saturday that poll rigging is a chronic plague in Indonesia's general election.

"We have evidence that in 1992, a regency in Lampung province completed its ballot counting at 11 a.m., while the vote-taking was still obviously taking place," he said.

Political observer Alexander Irwan had recently predicted that systematic poll rigging by bureaucrats and the military to help Golkar will remain widespread in the coming election.

Irwan said the worst violations mostly take place in polling stations where witnesses from PPP and Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), are often blocked from observing the ballot counting.

"Witnesses are crucial in the ballot counting and in the past they often became a prime target of intimidation," he said. (imn/swe)