Syamsul Huda M. Suhari

The country’s first-ever simultaneous regional elections (Pilkada) last week appear to have been marred with rampant election fraud, with voters and election supervisors in a number of regions reporting vote-buying ahead of polling day, including 11th-hour bribery and forced oaths.

In Bone Bolango regency, Gorontalo, a 41-year-old housewife, identified as OD, told the local elections supervisory committee (Panwaslu) that a member of regentship candidate Hamim Pou’s campaign team had offered her Rp 50,000 (US$3.70) in cash and four liters of rice in exchange for her vote.

“I was also asked to swear on the Koran [to vote for the candidate] and accept the consequences [from God] if I didn’t vote for him,” OD said, adding that the attempted bribe had been offered on Dec. 8, the day before the Pilkada.

Another resident, RH, 40, also claimed that she had been asked by one of her neighbors to vote for Indrawanto Hasan, another candidate, in exchange for a sum of cash.

“The incident took place at 10 a.m., the day before the Pilkada,” RH said.

In Purworejo regency, Central Java, similar practices were levelled at three people, including two members of local polling station (TPS) committees.

Butuh lead election supervisor Achmad Chusnaini told Antara news agency that the case had been revealed by the local Panwaslu.

“A total of 50 envelopes containing Rp 20,000 each had been distributed by the perpetrators [to voters],” said Chusnaini, adding that the money had been recovered from the recipients with the help of local police.

Millions of voters from eight provinces and 260 regencies and municipalities visited the nearest polling stations on Dec. 9 as Indonesia carried out its first-ever simultaneous regional elections.

Indications of vote-buying, however, emerged long before polling day. The central Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) received 45 reports of legal violations, including 25 categorized as vote-buying, from cities and regencies across the country in the three-day quiet period leading up to balloting.

According to the reports, attempts to buy votes took a variety of forms, the most common of which was for candidates to distribute sums of money ranging from Rp 20,000 to Rp 200,000 early in the morning of election day.

Many reports of vote-buying were also submitted to election supervisors by campaign team members in the wake of the elections.

The campaign team for Bone Bolango regentship candidate Ismet Mile, for example, handed over to the local Panwaslu a video appearing to show the wife of incumbent candidate Hamim, Loly Yunus tossing Rp 20,000 and Rp 50,000 banknotes into a crowd of local residents.

Ismet’s campaign team secretary Noldy said that the video had been taken on the final day of the campaign period at Ippot field in Tapa.