Stop issuance of equivocal policies, KIPP tells KPU

JAKARTA (JP): The General Elections Commission (KPU) should stop issuing policies which would further delay the tallying of the national polls, the Independent Committee for Election Monitoring (KIPP) said.

KIPP secretary-general Mulyana W. Kusumah said in a statement on Monday various policies from the KPU had paved the way for new political demands from several political parties.

Several new parties suggested they get seats in legislative bodies even though they have not gained enough votes, which received much criticism.

"The most important thing is KPU's policies have negated people's sovereignty," Mulyana said.

The start of national tallying, which was to begin June 21, was delayed to July 6, due to, among other things, pending reports from a special team set up by KPU to verify reports of election violations.

The delay to start national tallying, of which the decision took 10 days to make, is feared to hold up the subsequent agenda of the results announcement for the national, provincial and regional legislative bodies.

The official Election Supervisory Committee complained KPU apparently did not trust the supervisory committee by setting up such a team. Others also criticized KPU for setting up the team, saying it overlapped with the committee's job.

Mulyana said if KPU continued to issue other policies which violate laws or were against "political decency," the President, as the responsible party for the poll according to electoral law, "should establish another alternative as a national political solution".

A solution, Mulyana said, could be a decree to supplement the electoral law which at least covers detailed procedures on national tallying and a follow up to various violations.

The Election Supervisory Committee completed its report on various violations and made recommendations last month to the institution responsible to take action, the Supreme Court.

However, the Supreme Court has not yet issued any response.

KIPP also requested the supervisory committee to carefully watch the recounting of national results by the National Elections Committee.

Also KIPP urged on Monday an immediate investigation into the findings of 79,856 ballots which were mostly pierced, at a warehouse of scrap material.

KIPP branches of Gresik in East Java cited the Tanah Merah district polling committee in Bangkalan, Madura island, which said the decision to consider the papers invalid was an agreement among the committee members.

They said all the ballots were made invalid as they were ruined by rain on the way from the committee office to the house of a committee member.

"So the Tanah Merah committee decided to sell the ballots as waste paper," KIPP's statement said. The revenue from the sales was used to support the committee's job, the statement said. (anr)