PPP has evidence of poll rigging attempts

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)