Megawati challenges quick count results

Dicky Christanto , The Jakarta Post , Jakarta | Thu, 07/09/2009 2:33 PM | Headlines

The presidential candidate from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), Megawati Sukarnoputri, challenged the validity of quick count results and said they reflected an imperfect democracy.

"A perfect democracy must not contain any indications of fraud," Megawati said during a televised interview with TVOne in Jakarta on Wednesday.

"How can we say the election has been done properly if I still receive reports about 10 million unregistered voters?

"The joyous process of the election and democracy only looks good on TV, but in reality we are now experiencing a pseudo-democracy."

Unofficial quick count results for Wednesday's presidential election from various institutions showed that incumbent President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) from the Democratic Party (PD) and his running mate, former Bank Indonesia governor, Boediono, have likely won in one round by garnering more than 50 percent of votes.

Megawati was in distant second with some 25 percent of votes, while incumbent Vice President Jusuf Kalla from the Golkar Party has possibly won only 12 percent.

The PDI-P and Golkar have been questioning the validity of the election due to recent initial findings by a special committee of the House of Representatives.

The committee, specially assigned to investigate the validity of the electoral roll, recently said the General Elections Commission (KPU) failed to enlist around 49 million eligible voters on the roll.

The Constitutional Court then ruled Monday that unregistered, eligible voters could use their ID cards to cast their ballots.

Commenting on the election, political observer Maswadi Rauf of the University of Indonesia said that election stakeholders should be grateful for the ruling.

"Without the ruling we might face the threat of the election postponement due to the poor electoral roll process," he told The Jakarta Post.

However, he also expected a further yet thorough investigation regarding the complaints of several indications of mismanagement reported during the election process.

"We should encourage the KPU and the Election Supervisory Body *Bawaslu* to conduct a joint investigation toward various indications of irregularities."

It was reported from a hospital in Makassar, South Sulawesi, that thousands of patients and hospital employees could not vote because the local branches of the KPU did not facilitate the process for them.

Dozens of inmates in Pacitan, East Java, were also unable to votebecause there was no polling station available at the correctional center.

The head of the Research Institute for Democracy and a Prosperous State (Pedoman), Fadjroel Rachman, said the electoral roll mismanagement was a major stain that needed to be wiped away in future elections.

"The court's ruling saved a lot of unregistered voters' constitutional rights for the time being.

"Therefore, we must learn from this incident.

"We must do our best to prevent the same mismanagement from happening again in the future."

Nevertheless, he said, SBY was the winner of the election although the true winners were the people.

"SBY should now remember that he has a lot of homework to do, especially regarding the resolution of past human rights violations and the investigation into the corruption done by Soeharto and his chronies." (hdt)

Posted in: Indonesia Today