Result of Irian Jaya election challenged

The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Tue, 03/28/2006 8:59 AM

Nethy Dharma Somba, The Jakarta Post, Jayapura

Lawyers representing the losing candidate in West Irian Jaya's gubernatorial election have filed suit against the provincial General Elections Commission (KPUD) over what they allege to be voting irregularities.

Yorrys Th. Raweyai's lawyers filed the suit at the Jayapura High Court in Papua on Monday. West Irian Jaya does not have its own high court.

Lawyer Radja Simanjuntak said the total number of votes recorded in West Irian Jaya's eight regencies and a city exceeded the number of official registered voters.

He also said Yorrys had received fewer votes than he should have because hundreds of his supporters did not receive voting cards before the March 11 election.

Over 78,000 votes were added to ensure the victory of Abraham Octovianus Atururi and his running mate Rahimim Katjong in the election for the new province's governor and deputy governor, Radja alleged. He also claimed more than 26,000 votes for Yorrys were lost.

""There were many people who did not cast their votes at polling stations or who voted before March 11,"" Radja said. He added that Yorrys' legal team had prepared 17 witnesses to testify in the case.

Yorrys and his supporters hope the courts will either cancel the inauguration of Abraham and swear in Yorrys instead, or call a new election.

The provincial council declared Abraham and Katjong the winners of the election during a plenary session March 23. In the official count, Abraham received 183,279 votes and Yorrys 68,609 votes.

""KPUD has authentic and legitimate evidence to support the election result, but if they want to go to court they can. There's a legal process, let the court decide whether (the allegations) are right or wrong,"" said West Irian Jaya KPUD chairwoman Regina Sauyai.

Meanwhile, the Papua KPUD has decided to postpone until April 3 the official announcement of the result of Papua province's March 10 direct gubernatorial election. The result was originally to be announced March 30.

""We have not received vote counts from all of the province's KPUDs, so we have to wait for them,"" said KPUD spokesman Yohanis G. Bonay on Monday.

He said they had received the vote counts for only 13 of the province's 19 regencies and a city. ""We hope to finish everything by March 29,"" Yohanis said.

Provisional voting results as of Monday had Barnabas Suebu and Alexander Hessegem in the lead with 332,979 votes, or 30.75 percent of the more than one million votes already counted. Lukas Enembe and Arobi Aituarauw were close behind, with 321,035 votes, or 29.7 percent.