Plaintiff told to seek mediation over poll dispute

JAKARTA: The Central Jakarta District Court has asked for a petitioner to mediate between the General Elections Commission (KPU), the President and the home affairs minister in the hope of solving the plaintiff's civil lawsuit involving inaccuracies with the voter list during the general elections.

After a court session Thursday, Habiburrokhman, a lawyer from the People's Lawyers Association representing client FX Arief Poyuono, said the judge had ordered his client to provide a mediation draft during the upcoming session scheduled for next week.

"In our draft, we will ask for the KPU, the President and the home affairs minister to apologize to the public for the voter list chaos that prevented millions of eligible voters from casting their ballots," Habiburokhman said.

His client will be asking the KPU and government to form an independent body with the task of supervising KPU processes in revalidating the voter lists.

"We expect to establish such a body before the presidential election to prevent this from occurring in the future," he said. -JP