Punched ballot papers dumped in East Java

SURABAYA, East Java (JP): Police in Gresik are investigating the recent discovery of 30 bags of punched ballots in a storehouse belonging to a paper and iron recycling company in Driyorejo village.

Police discovered the ballots following a report by the local branch of the Independent Elections Monitoring Committee (KIPP).

"The ballots are legal because they contain official holograms and signatures of polling committee officials," local KIPP chairman Muhammad Faizin said.

A ruling by the General Elections Commission (KPU) states regency elections committees must keep all punched ballots for at least three months after election day in anticipation of a vote recount.

Faizin said a number of KIPP volunteers filed a report with the police after they saw children playing with dozens of ballots near the storehouse on Thursday afternoon.

He said he suspected the ballots were intentionally dumped.

Gresik Police chief Lt. Col. Sudarto said the police had seized the ballots as evidence and would seek help from their colleagues in Bangkalan on Madura Island, Surabaya and the Central Java towns of Surakarta and Sragen because some of the ballots came from there.

"I'm afraid certain people intentionally threw away the ballots to disrupt the elections," he said.

National Elections Committee (PPI) chairman Jacob Tobing urged both the police and the Elections Supervisory Committee on Friday to investigate the case.

He said that days after the June 7 elections, the PPI told regency-level elections committees across the country to keep all ballots as required by the KPU.

Swindle

In Yogyakarta, the Indonesian Legal Rights and Human Rights Association (PBHI) urged the Elections Supervisory Committee and the police to investigate the alleged embezzlement of salaries intended for staff members of local elections committees.

Local PBHI chairman Hillarius Ng Mero said on Friday an investigation conducted at a number of polling stations across the province found elections workers' salaries were cut by between Rp 3,000 and Rp 11,000. He estimated the alleged embezzlement reached Rp 1.45 billion.

There were 5,265 polling stations in the province, each employing 55 workers who, according to the KPU, should have received between Rp 10,000 and Rp 25,000 each.

Hillarius said in some polling places in the Umbulharjo Wirobrajan, Kalasan and Wonolelo subdistricts, polling committee chiefs had their salaries reduced to Rp 20,000.

He said he suspected government officials who procured the elections funds committed the swindle.

In Palu, the chairman of the Central Sulawesi Provincial Elections Supervisory Committee, Wahyana Endra Jarwa, upheld a decision by the lower committee in Banggai regency recommending the polls be reheld at a polling station in Rusakencana village, Toili subdistrict.

"The polls must immediately be reheld because all ballots were found to have the voters' thumbprints," Wahyana said, adding that this violated the principle of secrecy.

He said a similar case was found at a polling station in Kulawi subdistrict, also in Banggai regency.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the Maluku Provincial Elections Committee, Lutfi Sanaky, said the schedule for the ballot recount in Central and North Maluku was still undecided because the committee had yet to receive the original vote tabulations from the two regencies.(38/40/43/48/imn/nur/rms/swa)