The Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) claims it has found more possible electoral violations across 18 provinces, but analysts point out these are unlikely to deny President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono of a decisive victory.
Bawaslu member Angelina Tio Fridelina Sitorus told The Jakarta Post on Thursday her office had found more indications of violations in 18 other provinces, besides those found in Jakarta and which the agency had revealed Wednesday, but declined to give an exact number.
"These violations include people found trying to vote more than once, a person claiming to be someone he was not, and polling officials who did not give copies of voter registration forms to poll monitors," she said over the phone.
However, she added the violations were mostly minor and easily dealt with, saying the Bawaslu had found no indications of massive electoral fraud.
"From what we saw, there were no signs of vote rigging," she said.
The Bawaslu's report supports statements from independent observers, who say Wednesday's presidential election was largely free and fair.
"There is no evidence so far of systematic or massive fraud," said Nico Harjanto, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies, noting even if all the contested votes were awarded to Yudhoyono's opponents, the incumbent would still win.
Early returns gave Yudhoyono in excess of 60 percent of the votes, more than enough to avoid a runoff in September.
The result was welcomed by the United States, which works closely with Jakarta to counter the threat of Islamist militancy and seeks to mend ties with the Muslim world.
American businesses have significant holdings in the resource-rich country, Southeast Asia's largest economy.
US Ambassador Cameron Hume congratulated Yudhoyono, saying in a statement the peaceful vote "demonstrated the commitment of Indonesians to their vibrant democracy".
But other observers were quick to point out flaws in the polls.
Somsri Hananuntasuk, an international observer from the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL), agreed the election was conducted well, but criticized the General Elections Commission (KPU) for failing to pay attention to the details.
She said the method of gathering votes, done by getting voters to bring their invitation cards to the polling stations to be checked against the electoral roll, was insufficient, considering the faulty electoral roll.
She cited the recent electoral roll fiasco that indicated millions of registered voters may have been ineligible to vote.
"Voters should be required to bring picture IDs, because the polling method is still too prone to fraud," Hananuntasuk said.
"People can easily pass themselves off as others, because there is no picture evidence. I don't understand why the KPU still lets people do this.
"We're happy *the election* was peaceful. After the 1999 election, Indonesia seems to be good in controlling conflict, but in term of procedure, I think it needs reform. It needed to be discussed," she added.
Daniel Zuchron, from the People's Voters Education Network, also criticized the voting mechanism, citing alleged violations at 40 polling stations and the lack of people using ID cards to register to vote on Wednesday (a method allowed by the Constitutional Court just a day before voting day) as proof the KPU had failed miserable to do its job.
"Based on our findings, we conclude the 2009 presidential election is of a low quality due to a lack of commitment from the election commission and poll officers," he said.
