Violations rampant: Poll watchdog

Violations rampant: Poll watchdog

JAKARTA (JP): An independent poll watchdog said yesterday the
election had proceeded smoothly but had been marred by widespread
electoral violations and public opposition.

The Independent Election Monitoring Committee's chairman,
Goenawan Mohamad, said violations had happened in at least 21
percent of polling stations, monitored by about 8,000 volunteers.

The poll watchdog monitored about 3,000 polling stations in 47
towns in 17 provinces, and intensely scrutinized 609 other
polling stations in 13 towns.

"The violations were systematic because the election was
organized by government officials who have to maintain the single
domination of Golkar," Goenawan said.

"It's very difficult to differentiate government bureaucrats
as Golkar members from election administrators and supervisors,"
he added.

The minister of home affairs is the ex-officio chairman of the
General Elections Institute, and the attorney general is the ex-
officio chairman of the Election Supervision Committee. All top
government officials are Golkar functionaries.

The poll watchdog's provisional findings revealed that double
or higher multiple voting and discriminatory treatment of voters
comprised most of the violations.

Other irregularities included intimidation and evictions of
scrutineers, obscured counting, violence and voting by
unregistered voters.

The watchdog said the government should legally sanction
violators.

"This is essential if the principle of public accountability
is to be upheld. This will demonstrate that there is political
legitimacy and that people's sovereignty has been respected," its
statement said.

Goenawan said public opposition to the election was obvious
because of the large number of spoiled ballot papers which
coincided with a drastic drop in the share of the vote gained by
the Indonesian Democratic Party (PDI), under its new government-
recognized leadership.

The PDI, whose leader Megawati Soekarnoputri was replaced by
Soerjadi in a government-backed congress last year, is facing its
worst defeat ever. By 4:00 p.m. yesterday, it had gained only
three million of the 103 million votes counted.

"I suspect the boycott factor was actually the real third
place getter in the election," Goenawan said.

More than 2.6 million of the votes cast in Central Java and
more than 317,000 in Yogyakarta had been declared invalid by the
time both provinces finished ballot counting yesterday.

Megawati, whose faction was barred from standing for election,
announced last week that she would not vote and urged her
supporters not to vote for the government-recognized PDI faction.

Goenawan said the government should learn from the boycott
trend and adjust the political system to accommodate marginal
groups.

The poll watchdog expects to complete its final report within
two weeks to a month.

The United Development Party (PPP) announced more violations.
Zein Badjeber, a PPP deputy chairman, told a press conference
that the party had discovered 89 violations by Thursday evening
based on reports from its provincial branches.

Zein said that many PPP scrutineers had not been allowed to
watch ballot counting. "They received approval from their
respective regents only at the last minute, preventing them from
reporting to electoral committee officials in time," he said.

PPP scrutineers had had the same problem in West Java, said
the party's provincial chairman, Abbas Pranajaya. He said local
electoral committee officials had given "many unreasonable
excuses to stop PPP scrutineers doing their job".

"Our scrutineers were evicted from polling stations simply
because they failed to show photocopies of their ID cards and
copies of regent approvals," he said.

Other violations included multiple voting by a subdistrict
secretary in Riau, potential double voting by teachers in Central
Jakarta and widespread intimidation of students and teachers to
vote Golkar, Zein said.

PPP deputy chairman Yusuf Syakir said Golkar had given
"incentives" to government employees, especially in Jakarta, of
between Rp 60,000 (US$24.57) and Rp 100,000, or a full months
salary to support Golkar.

PPP secretary-general Tosari Wijaya said that none of the
votes at polling stations in six districts in Sampang, Madura,
had been counted. In addition none of the votes had been counted
at 1,019 polling stations in Sumenep, Madura, and several
stations in Southeast Sulawesi, Lampung, West Sumatra and South
Sumatra. (team)