The incompetence of the polling body caused widespread fraud in the recent elections, which cast doubts on the legitimacy of the results, legislators said Wednesday.
Several members of the House of Representative's committee investigating alleged fraud in the recent general elections, said the General Elections Commission (KPU) — along with its provincial and regency offices — failed to perform its duties adequately.
They added that most KPU staff lacked the necessary experience to carry out their main tasks, such as verifying and upgrading the electoral roll handed down by the government.
"Many [provincial, regency and municipal] polling bodies received data from the provincial, regency and municipal administrations that had not been verified or updated, neglecting millions of eligible voters unregistered in the electoral roll," Eva Sundari Kusuma of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) told The Jakarta Post on Wednesday.
Eva said a significant part of the electoral roll the government handed down to the polling body consisted of voters registered for the 2004 general elections and local elections held in previous years.
"That is why so many eligible voters had identical identity numbers, and why the names of children
and deceased individuals appeared on the permanent electoral roll used for the April 9 legislative elections and July 8 presidential election," she said.
She added her committee would continue investigating the alleged fraud.
Legislators also criticized the polling body for lacking the political will to manage the elections professionally.
On the eve of the presidential race, it is believed that up to 40 million eligible voters remained unregistered, and were therefore unable to vote.
The Constitutional Court subsequently let voters use their identity cards to cast their ballot.
Agus Purnomo, a member from the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), concurred with Eva, stating that the delay in announcing the new House seat allocation highlighted the polling body's incompetence.
"The House will likely recommend the replacement of the polling body's seven members in the inquiry's conclusion," he said.
He added his committee had not yet found evidence of government involvement in the chaotic organization of the elections.
Many parties accused incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party of manipulating the electoral roll to win the elections, although his party had actually won 20 percent of votes in the legislative elections, and SBY and his running mate Boediono garnering more than 6o percent of votes in the race.
Gayus Lumbuun and Hasto Kristianto, two other members from the PDI-P party, said their committee would draw conclusions only after it questioned the director general of population administration and the Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu), on Wednesday night.
KPU chairman Abdul Hafiz Anshary welcomed the amicable atmosphere at the meeting held with the investigating committee.
He said the commission had organized the elections not only in accordance with the law, but also in the best possible way. (hdt)
