IBRAHIM ISAS FOCUS
Friday, July 18, 2014
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INDONESIAN
PRESIDENTIAL
ELECTION 2014
* * *
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Yudhoyono Guarantees Public Safety Amid Fears of Possible
‘Chaos
---Prabowo’s
camp prepares to contest result
-- More irregularities, cheating reported in
regions
-- KPU
pledges impartiality amid vote-rigging concerns
* * *
Yudhoyono Guarantees Public Safety Amid Fears
of
Possible Post-Election ‘Chaos’
Riot control soldiers of the Air Force Special Forces march
during a review by the commander of the Indonesian Military
(TNI) at Pedanakusuma Halim in Jakarta on July 16, 2014. (Antara
Photo/Rosa Panggabean)
Jakarta. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has
reassured Indonesians that they will be safe when the country’s
new
president is announced next week.
The outcome of the nation’s tight presidential contest, between
Jakarta Governor Joko Widodo and former Army general Prabowo
Subianto, is expected to be announced by the General Elections
Commission (KPU) on July 22.
Both candidates have claimed victory based on different quick
count results, and the official announcement will follow two weeks
of
tension and allegations of ballot fraud.
In a bid to calm fears, presidential spokesman Julian Aldrin
Pasha
said on Thursday that Yudhoyono had ordered National Police Chief
Gen. Sutarman and Indonesian Military Chief Gen. Moeldoko to
“guard
the democratic process” so that people’s daily lives would not be
disrupted.
“The president guarantees the situation is safe,” Julian said.
“This is the government’s responsibility.”
He added that the president hoped the losing candidates would
welcome the official result.
At a cabinet meeting at the presidential office, Yudhoyono asks
for the public’s support when the official announcement is made.
“I urge all Indonesians to keep guard so that the political and
democratic process can run peacefully, orderly and safely from
beginning to end,” he said.
Yudhoyono, whose second five-year term ends when the new
president
takes office on Oct. 20, said it was the government’s goal to
ensure the transition from one administration to the next went
smoothly.
“Let us welcome the new president … Let’s support them so
the new leaders and government can carry out their task better.”
he
said.
Meanwhile, police in Jakarta have announced they will hold a
security drill involving thousands of officers to prepare for
“chaos”
that could erupt after the announcement of the presidential
election
result.
Jakarta Police spokesperson Sr. Commr. Rikwanto said on Thursday
that police would conduct an exercise at the KPU headquarters in
Central Jakarta on Saturday.
The security drill, which will involve 3,121 officers from
Jakarta
Police, Central Jakarta Police and the National Police, was being
held “to anticipate chaos at the KPU office”, he said.
Police have already conducted similar drills this year, with
exercises held at the Constitutional Court building, the Election
Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) office and both national and local KPU
offices.
According to a majority of closely followed quick count results,
Joko and his vice presidential running mate Jusuf Kalla have the
lead
over Prabowo and his running mate Hatta Rajasa. But some
pollsters show Prabowo leading Joko. Both parties claimed victory
in
the hours after the July 9
election.
Prabowo’s camp prepares to
contest result
Hans Nicholas Jong and Yuliasri
Perdani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Thu, July 17
2014,
9:04 AM
Although presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto has claimed that
he will abide by the official election result, his legal team is
gearing up to challenge the final vote tabulation, scheduled to be
announced by the General Elections Commission (KPU) on July
22.
Prabowo campaign team lawyer Habiburokhman said on
Wednesday that the camp was ready to file an election-dispute case
with the Constitutional Court should the KPU declare that Prabowo
lost to the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle’s (PDI-P)
candidate, Joko “Jokowi” Widodo.
Habiburokhman said the
team would focus their lawsuit on three issues. “The first is
vote-buying. The second is the theft of recapitulation documents
[C1
forms] in some regions and indications of public officials being
partial [to one of the candidates],” he told reporters at the
Constitutional Court, Jakarta, following a coordination meeting
with
the court and the KPU.
The third issue, he added, was voters
who cast their votes in locations where they did not reside,
without
proper documentation.
Following a close-fought election,
pollsters have estimated the vote gap between the two tickets to
be
at most 6 percent.
Prabowo has repeatedly said in public that
he will honor and accept whatever decision the KPU makes since it
comes from the Indonesian people. He has criticized the Jokowi
camp
for suggesting “if Jokowi loses, the KPU must be cheating”.
Jokowi’s camp has said it will file a challenge only if
there is a huge discrepancy between the official vote result and
the
quick-count results where Jokowi has come out as winner.
“In
terms of an election dispute, we are waiting for the lawsuits that
[Prabowo’s team] are preparing,” Jokowi’s advocacy team member
Sirra Prayuna said.
“It doesn’t mean we won’t file a
challenge. We have done our own vote tabulation and the result is
clear [that Jokowi won].”
The Constitutional Court has given
three days after the July 22 announcement for either camp to
challenge the results.
Once all necessary documents have been
submitted, the court is scheduled to have its first hearing on
Aug.
3. The verdict in any challenge will be announced by Aug. 21.
In
light of the conflicting quick-count results and both camps
claiming
victory concerns over possible trouble following the announcement
of
the election result have mounted.
The National Police have
prepared measures to address any security concerns, including
possible riots, that may occur.
The potential security
measures included the use of live rounds to disperse angry mobs,
National Police chief Gen. Sutarman said on Wednesday.
“All
steps to address riots — from first to sixth, have been prepared.
It is not an order to shoot [individuals], but a step up to using
firearms,” he said after an event at the National Police
headquarters in Jakarta.
Sutarman was referring to steps
stipulated in the 2010 National Police Procedures on Handling
Public
Disorder, in which police officers are authorized to use tear gas
and
live rounds to prevent individuals from harming others.
Sutarman
said that he was closely coordinating with the military (TNI) and
regional police chiefs to anticipate possible disturbances.
“The
TNI are ready to support us, including in intensifying security
measures around the KPU headquarters in Jakarta, where the final
vote
tabulation takes place,” he said.
They will also pay special
attention to areas surrounding Jakarta, in Banten and West Java,
to
prevent the mobilization of protesters into the
capital.
More irregularities, cheating
reported in regions
Nethy Dharma Somba and Ainur Rohmah,
The Jakarta Post, Jayapura/Semarang | Headlines | Wed, July 16
2014,
9:14 AM
More alleged irregularities and incidences of cheating have been
reported in a number of regions as the tabulation of the July 9
presidential election ballots continues.
The results are
expected to be made public by the General Elections Commission
(KPU)
by July 22.
The Papua Elections Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu)
reported finding irregularities in West and Central Mapia
districts
in Dogiyai regency, in which voting was conducted by election
officials.
“The election material never reached the two
districts, but the local monitoring committee later found that
votes
had been cast by officials who delivered the material to Moanimani
district,” Papua Bawaslu commissioner Anugerah Patah said on
Tuesday.
Anugerah said similar cases were found in five
subdistricts of in Wapoga district, Nabire regency.
He said
the election material arrived at the subdistricts at 1 p.m. local
time after all voters had left the polling stations (TPS). The
ballots were pierced by officials of the respective TPS based on
an
agreement with village heads in the respective subdistricts.
“We
will recommend a revote in each case,” Anugerah said.
Meanwhile,
a revote has also been scheduled for TPS 17 in Derajat
subdistrict,
Cirebon regency, West Java, for Wednesday, after two people were
found to have cast votes without presenting the required
documents.
West Java General Elections Commission (KPUD)
chairman Yayat Hidayat said a revote had been conducted at seven
other TPS in Cirebon, but participation was only 50 percent of the
number on polling day.
He said the revote would not disrupt
the recapitulation schedule. “We are optimistic everything will be
on schedule and that the result will reach the KPU on July 21,”
Yayat said.
In Semarang, the Central Java Bawaslu has been
handling six cases of criminal violations against election
regulations.
The local Bawaslu chairman, Abhan Misbah, said
the violations happened in four regencies: three in Sragen and one
each in Purbalingga, Banyumas and Batang.
The violations were
committed on election day and during the cooling off period.
“I
hope the police will handle the cases, considered crimes, as soon
as
possible so that a political lesson is learned in Central Java,”
Abhan said in Semarang on Tuesday, adding that his agency had also
been examining a number of alleged administrative
violations.
Meanwhile, the Sampamg KPUD on Madura Island, East
Java, has announced that no violations were committed during the
presidential election in the regency.
He was responding to a
report filed by the Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Jusuf Kalla camp over
indications of cheating in which the pair secured not a single
vote
at 17 polling stations in Ketapang Barat subdistrict.
Sampang
KPUD chairman Samsul Muarif assured that the election was
conducted
according to procedure. Witnesses of both camps had signed the
results of the vote counting.
“The facts indeed show that
Jokowi got no votes at the 17 TPS,” he said.
The same claim
of zero cheating was made in Bantul, Yogyakarta.
“It makes
us proud. No cheating such as data manipulation, vote rigging or
vote-buying was found,” Bantul Elections Supervisory Committee
(Panwaslu) chairman Supardi said on Tuesday.
Arya
Dipa, Indra Harsaputra and Slamet Susanto contributed to this
story
KPU pledges
impartiality
amid vote-rigging concerns
Hans Nicholas Jong and Ina Parlina,
The
Jakarta Post, Jakarta | Headlines | Wed, July 16 2014, 9:20 AM
Action replay: An
official holds up a revote card in Pandantoyo hamlet in Kediri,
East
Java, on Tuesday. The presidential election was repeated in the
hamlet after the authorities found a resident had voted twice on
July
9. Antara/Rudi Mulya
The General Elections Commission (KPU) pledged on Tuesday that it
would remain impartial amid allegations of rampant manipulation
taking place in the manual vote tabulation process.
The
commission also vowed that it would resist any political pressure
to
favor one presidential ticket over the other.
KPU
commissioner Ferry Kurnia Rizkiyansyah said on Tuesday that the
commission would not risk its credibility by allowing vote
manipulation to happen on a wide scale.
“Thank God, till now
there has been no interference in our decision-making,” he told
reporters at his office at KPU headquarters in Menteng, Central
Jakarta.
Ferry was responding to a call by the National
Commission on Human Rights (Komnas HAM) for all institutions
involved
with the electoral process, namely the KPU and the Elections
Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu), as well as the National Police and
the
Indonesian Military (TNI), to maintain their professionalism and
neutrality, particularly while votes were still being tabulated.
Komnas HAM warned that with only a slim margin separating the
two presidential pairs based on numerous quick-count results, the
potential for vote rigging had never been higher.
“Vote-counting
manipulation could be deemed a violation of human rights because
the
basic rights of the people will [eventually] be denied,” Komnas
HAM
chairman Hafid Abbas said.
In its investigation, Komnas HAM
found that manipulation might have occurred in areas where it had
conducted election monitoring activities.
Komnas HAM
dispatched observers to monitor voting in 13 provinces; Aceh,
North
Sumatra, Lampung, Jakarta and its surrounding areas, East Java,
Central Java, West Kalimantan, Papua, West Papua, South Sulawesi,
Central Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara and Maluku.
It has been
alleged that votes were inflated in favor of Gerindra Party
presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto.
One of the most
blatant acts of tampering allegedly occurred in the regencies of
Sampang and Bangkalan on Madura Island, East Java, just three days
after the July 9 election. The Joko “Jokowi” Widodo-Jusuf Kalla
campaign team reported that the pair had won zero votes in a
number
places in the two regions.
Sigit Jojowardono, KPU chief of the
technical bureau for elections, said that even though Jokowi did
not
get any votes at 17 polling stations in Sampang, Madura, it did
not
mean that manipulation occurred.
“Ideally, there should be
a witness. The witnesses are sent by each campaign team. If they
can’t send witnesses that’s fine. The public can always monitor
the vote counting and file a report with the Bawaslu,” he
said.
Enggartiasto Lukito, coordinator of witnesses and vote
counting for Jokowi’s campaign, said it was obvious that
manipulation had taken place in Madura.
“In some cases,
votes for Prabowo were added and votes for Jokowi were reduced. In
[several polling stations in] Madura, there were no votes for
Jokowi
and the C1 forms were not signed by witnesses,” Enggartiasto said,
referring to the vote tabulation form.
He said that there were
statements from Jokowi supporters in Sampang that they had indeed
cast their ballots for that candidate. “They said they voted for
Jokowi [...] KPU, Bawaslu, the police, they have to do something,”
he said.
Separately, KPU chairman Husni Kamil Manik maintained
that the commission would resist any political pressure.
Husni
said that there was no pressure from President Susilo Bambang
Yudhoyono when he called him
last week.
The President, who
made the call while he was being accompanied by State Secretary
Sudi
Silalahi, Cabinet Secretary Dipo Alam and his two advisors, Daniel
Sparingga and Teuku Faizasyah, urged the KPU to involve both camps
in
monitoring the vote tabulation process.
“The President said
that it’s really important not to leave the [vote tabulation]
process completely in the hands of the KPU, because on July 22,
one
of the candidates would say that the KPU is not being objective,”
Husni said.
— Josh Kelety contributed to this
report from Jakarta
