T

he General Elections Commission (KPU) finally announced last Friday the results of the April 9 legislative election just before the deadline, but the fact that all but one of the parties that contested the polls are challenging the final vote tally due to alleged fraud is undoubtedly a cause for concern.

As of midnight on Monday, the 12 national political parties and two of the three local parties in Aceh, as well as 30 candidates for Regional Representatives Councils (DPDs), filed their complaints with the Constitutional Court about alleged electoral irregularities that cost them votes. The court will have 30 days to settle the election disputes, although the process will not affect the KPU'€™s schedule in allocating the 560 House of Representatives seats and 132 DPD seats among the successful candidates on Wednesday.

Nothing is strange about the court-based disputes, as the same thing happened following the elections in 2004 and 2009. At the end of the day, the KPU cannot please everybody.

But compared with the so-called '€œfiesta of democracy'€ that Indonesia has organized in the past, the most recent election has been judged by many as being the most vulnerable to vote-buying. Such a perception is justified by the continual reports of vote-buying both in the mainstream media and social media of widespread vote-buying, which reportedly involved not only newcomers but also seasoned politicians.

A survey conducted by the Indonesia Indicator on 262 print media and news outlets found that vote-buying stories accounted for 52 percent of the election-related news they ran between March 16 and May 7.

The legislative candidates dared to openly offer money or goods to voters in exchange for their support, despite the 2012 Election Law stipulating that the practice constituted a criminal act. Their modus operandi varied from gatherings where gifts were distributed in the form of '€œcash assistance'€ to potential voters, to '€œpre-dawn operations'€ where they or their field staff handed over money to voters a few hours prior to the ballot.

Video footage of incumbent House lawmaker Sutan Bhatoegana, who handed over Rp 50,000 (US$4.33) to each of his supporters while singing and dancing during an indoor rally in Medan, North Sumatra, was uploaded on YouTube. It appears as though the Democratic Party politician will lose his House seat, while blaming everything on his rival, a fellow party member whom Sutan has accused of bribing poll committee members to steal his votes.

Nothing has been heard about whether Sutan will face charges under articles 88 and 89 of the Election Law. Law enforcement against vote-buyers has been too lenient, as seen on Monday when the Riau District Court sentenced a Golkar Party legislative candidate to a four-month suspended jail sentence after finding her guilty of giving batik shirts to potential voters.

Without strict law enforcement against vote-buyers and other poll fraudsters, Indonesia'€™s elections may well remain free but they will not be fair, which would be a major setback for our hard-won democracy.