Punched ballot papers dumped in East Java

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)