Revise list, Kalla, Mega urge KPU

Adianto P. Simamora ,  The Jakarta Post ,  Jakarta   |  Mon, 07/06/2009 10:08 AM  |  Headlines

Two pairs of presidential and vice presidential candidates demanded Sunday that the General Election Commission (KPU) immediately revise the troubled electoral roll.

Speaking a joint press conference after a closed-door meeting with the second-largest Muslim organization Muhammadiyah’s headquarters in Menteng, Central Jakarta, the Megawati-Prabowo pair and their rival Jusuf Kalla and his running mate Wiranto expressed their optimism that the polling body could repair the electoral roll in a day if it had the good will to do so.

“The KPU will be able to do the repairs quickly by scratching out double names and single identity numbers, names of the dead voters, of servicemen and of child voters.

“The revision is not for our own interests but for the sake of the people and the democracy because it is not certain the unregistered voters will vote for Megawati or me."

Kalla confirmed his campaign team has received many reports concerning the electoral fraud cases in numerous provinces both in Java and outside of Java.

Megawati concurred and said the revision of the electoral roll was a must to ensure a free and fair election as she did during her tenure in 2004.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his running mate Boediono did not show up to the meeting for unspecified reasons.

In a separate press conference, the SBY-Boediono campaign team, Hatta Radjasa declined to respond to the mounting demand for a revision of the electoral roll, saying his side would comply with the law and the election schedule set by the KPU.

Muhammadiyah Chairman Din Syamsudin expressed his concern over the alleged electoral roll fraud and a strong disappointment with the government and the polling body which he said had not in fact amended the electoral roll.

He said the two sides should consider the millions of people who would be deprived of their voting rights in the general election.

Neither Megawati nor Kalla asked the polling body to suspend the election. They did not demand that the President issue a government regulation in lieu of law (perppu) allowing voters to use their identity cards at polling stations on election day.

Like the two presidential candidates, a coalition of 56 civil society groups and political analysts lambasted the polling body for its failure to ensure a free and fair election and to maintain its neutrality.

Both sides said they would come to the KPU today to ensure the revision.

Chalid Muhammad of the Environmental Forum, Ray Rangkuti of the Indonesian Civilized Circle (Lima), Yudi Latief of the Paramadina University and Adhie Massardi of the Changed Bloc were of the same opinion that like the legislative polls, the presidential election process was invalid and flawed because millions of people had remained unregistered and the polling body was not neutral in organizing the elections.

The House of Representative’s political inquiry into the scandal is still going on. The institution believed the registered voters totalled 49 million.

The KPU admitted to have found irregularities in the electoral rolls in West Java, Banten, Jakarta, Yogyakarta and East Java but were reluctant to conduct a repair as it was already working as hard as it could.

“We will finish it today [Sunday]," the KPU chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary said.

 

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