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Probe into East Java election fraud continues
National Police chief Gen
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National Police chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri said Friday an investigation into allegations of voter list manipulation in last year’s East Java gubernatorial election was underway.
Despite an earlier assessment that the investigation lacked evidence, the police chief said the force would complete the evidence.
“We will be transparent in the investigation process so everyone can see the progress,” Bambang said at a press conference in Jakarta.
“If right now this investigation seems not to be going anywhere, it’s because we’re still waiting for the local general elections monitoring committee [Bawaslu] to give us the authentic voter lists as required by law to continue the investigation.”
The chairman of the East Java Gubernatorial Election Monitoring Committee, Sri Sugeng Pudjiatmiko, who also attended the press conference, said he had asked the provincial polling body (KPUD) to hand over the voter lists, but the KPUD had yet to comply.
“Now since the tenure of the East Java gubernatorial election monitoring committee has ended, I must tell you that I no longer have the authority to ask for the list. So I suggest the police ask the KPUD directly,” he said.
Under the elections law, Bawaslu’s tenure automatically ends 30 days after the elected governor and deputy governor assume office. East Java Governor Soekarwo was inaugurated on Feb. 12.
General Elections Commission (KPU) chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary, who also attended the press conference, said he would ask the East Java KPUD to hand over the lists if the police needed them to continue investigating the case.
“I will ask them to hand over the voter lists so the police can continue their investigation,” he said.
Claims of massive fraud in the recent East Java gubernatorial election have raised the issue of the credibility of the April polls, coming days after the resignation of the investigating East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Herman Surjadi Sumawiredja.
Herman said earlier he had tendered his resignation after the National Police interfered in the probe and asked the chief investigator to drop the case.
He had named KPUD head Wahyudi Purnomo a suspect in the case, but the National Police named him a witness. Herman was transferred to Jakarta, but then resigned from the police corps.
The findings of alleged voter list manipulation that saw thousands of ineligible voters listed as casting their ballots in the polls were announced Wednesday by the Indonesia Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), the second largest faction at the House of Representatives.
Besides the PDI-P, other parties have also raised fears of the “East Java scenario” — where the candidate jointly backed by the PDI-P, Khofifah Indar Parawansa, suffered a surprise loss — eclipsing the national polls.
The violations led to the Constitutional Court ordering revotes and a recount in three regencies, but no meaningful follow-up on the case was made by the National Police.
Soekarwo, backed by President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono’s Democratic Party, won the election.
The PDI-P claims voter fraud was found in the regencies of Magetan, Trenggalek and Ngawi, as well as in Yudhoyono’s hometown of Pacitan.
University of Indonesia legal expert Rudi Satrio said police should not have waited for the KPU to deliver the voter list to continue the investigation.
