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Massive fraud feared in coming Indonesian polls
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Mon, Mar 23, 2009
The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
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>YOGYAKARTA - CONCERNS are growing in Indonesia that rampant fraud could mar the country's April 5 legislative elections.
Independent observers have been sounding the alarm and, last Saturday, Ms Megawati Sukarnoputri dramatically declared that she was "not afraid to go to jail" for revealing glaring electoral inconsistencies in one province.
Expanding on her party's recent discovery of fraud in East Java registered-voter lists, Ms Megawati - whose Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) is poised to emerge as the second largest in Parliament - urged cadres and volunteers to keep a close eye on the polls at all levels, up to and including the final tally.
"How can democracy work when some have attempted to use invisible mechanisms and pressure?" the former president told thousands of supporters in Bantul, Yogyakarta.
"In this polling station, there is a voter named Siti - but then the same name with (an identical) identity card is also in several other areas."
She was referring to the corrupted voters' lists found in several East Javan areas, which have sparked a major scandal.
The lists had been used in a gubernatorial election in January and widespread concerns now hang over that contest's credibility.
A recent investigation into the lists revealed that, out of a total of 1.2 million voters listed, about 345,000 - a shocking 27 per cent - were ineligible or fictitious voters.
Ms Megawati said she was ready to be arrested for the PDI-P's initiative in exposing 34,724 fraud cases in the East Javan regencies of Ngawi, Magetan and Trenggalek Java.
She also said she was deeply concerned that the provincial police chief, Mr Herman S. Sumawiredja, had been replaced after he sought to investigate the alleged list fraud.
Independent entities like the Independent Election Supervisory Committee and the Indonesian Voters Committee also expressed concern last week.
They said they believed the planned fraud could be traced to high-level intervention.
Meanwhile, defeated East Java gubernatorial hopeful Khofifah Indar Parawansa warned that the suspect East Java registered-voter lists "would be reused in the upcoming legislative and presidential elections".
With such lists in use, she told the media, it would not be difficult for election contestants to gain a majority of votes based on non-existent voters.
- The Jakarta Post/Asia News Network
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