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Megawati demands close watch on polls
Power of the Red Bulls: Thousands of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle supporters stay put despite the downpour to listen to the speech made by the party chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri at Denggung square in Sleman, Yogyakarta, on Saturday
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Power of the Red Bulls: Thousands of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle supporters stay put despite the downpour to listen to the speech made by the party chairwoman Megawati Soekarnoputri at Denggung square in Sleman, Yogyakarta, on Saturday. JP/Tarko Sudiarno
On Saturday Megawati Soekarnoputri was in Yogyakarta warning of systemic vote rigging in the upcoming legislative elections, while President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Democratic Party entourage were rallying in Bali, a stronghold of the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P).
Following the recent revelations by her party of fraud in the registered voters’ list, Megawati, leader of PDI-P, urged all cadres and volunteers to keep a close eye on the polls at all levels, up to and including the final tally by the General Election Commission (KPU).
“How can democracy work when some have to attempt to use invisible mechanisms and pressure,” the former president said before thousands of supporters in Bantul.
“In this polling station there is a voter named Siti, but then the same name with a similar identity card are also in several other areas.”
Megawati was referring to allegedly corrupted voters’ lists found in several East Java areas, which had sparked strong reactions from election contestants and raised widespread concerns regarding the election’s fairness and credibility.
Megawati said she was ready to be arrested for revealing the voter mark-up in the East Java regencies and that she was deeply concerned with Insp. Gen. Herman S. Sumawiredja who had been replaced from the East Java provincial police’s top position for his probe into the alleged list fraud.
Defeated East Java governor hopeful Khofifah Indar Parawansa warned that “the East Java registered voter lists would be reused in the upcoming legislative and presidential elections”.
Under such conditions, it would not be difficult for election contestants to gain a majority of votes based on non-existent voters, Khofifah said in her visit to The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
Megawati, nominated for the presidential election, asked her legislative candidates to avoid inelegant and undemocratic competition in contending the election.
Separately, before thousands of supporters in Sanur, Bali, incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yu-dhoyono pledged that his party and government were determined to secure the tourist island that had been rocked by terrorist acts.
“We want security in Bali to be maintained. Whoever wants to destroy it, we will fight them,” he said.(hwa, naf)
