Jakarta, July 3 (ANTARA) - In the runup to the presidential polls on Wednesday next week, the General Elections Commission (KPU) had been urged to immediately settle the problems of unregistered voters and voters' card duplications as well as organize the election transparently without taking sides with any of the three presidential candidates.
"Let us save Indonesia by not letting presidential election fraud to happen. One of the crucial things that has to be corrected is the fixed voter's list (DPT) which has the potential of being tampered with," Hasanuddin, former chairman of the Central Board of the Islamic Students Association (PB HMI), said here on Thursday.
He made the remarks in response to an allegation that KPU had been biased and not serious enough in handling the problem of fixed voter's list. It was also accused of being biased in issuing popularization banners where it was suspected to have tried to direct voters to tick one of the presidential candidates.
The General Elections Monitoring Presidium of the Indonesian Nationalist Student Movement (LPPA GMNI) said KPU's familiarization banners instructing the public to tick presidential pair number two clearly indicates the commission is biased in organizing the upcoming election.
LPPA GMNI chairman Ade Reza Hariyadi said the matter was a violation of a free and fair election principle, which should be upheld by the KPU as the organizer of the democracy festivity as mandated by the people through the election law.
"What has been done by the KPU in this case, intentionally or unintentionally, a technical error or a systematic work, obviously could tarnish democracy in the presidential election process," he said.
"The case not only indicates the weaknesses of KPU's professionalism but also confirms allegations that the election body is biased and taking sides with a certain candidate since the legislative elections were held last April," he said.
According to scientist Indira Samego of the Indonesian Institute of Sciences (LIPI), the voter's list problems like bugging the recent legislative elections still existed until now because the KPU has not been serious in solving them.
Indria Samego made the comment in view of the fact that there were still people who were not yet included in the fixed voters' lists (DPTs)
Besides the problem of unregistered voters, there was concern that duplication of voters' lists would also happen in the upcoming presidential elections on July 8, 2009, he said.
Samego said the KPU and its officials should have handled the problem since the beginning and included the unregistered voters in the DPTs.
For this reason, LPPA GMNI chairman Ade Reza Hariyadi urged the KPU to openly make clarifications on the matter and apologize to the public. "The KPU should also make use of the remaining time to settle the fixed voter's list (DPT) problem which has existed since the April legislative elections," Ade Reza Hariyadi said.
He said that the duplications and alien voters in the voter's list, or the many unregistered eligible voters must immediately be overcome before the polling day arrived next week.
"It would be more useful for the nation if the KPU clarifies the socialization banner case and offers an apology to the public then busy defending itself that could eventually bring this nation to an unnecessary conflict," he said
The same voice was also aired by Hasanuddin of the PB HMI , calling on the KPU not to be biased or allow the occurrence of fraud in the 2009 presidential election.
Hasanuddin and other members of HMI also called on KPU not to act as if it was a success team of a certain presidential candidate pair. He was referring to the case of KPU's familiarization banners instructing would-be voters to tick the picture or name of a certain presidential candidate pair on their ballots.
"These ways should be done by a success team, not by the KPU," he stressed.
Hasanuddin also commented about the criticism on the various indications of voter markups in a number of places, particularly at the subdistrict level of election organizing committee (PPK) and regional branches of KPU (KPUD).
In this regard, a number of religious leaders called on the KPU to be transparent in organizing the elections and not take sides with one of the presidential pairs.
The appeal of 16 religious leaders led by Muhammadiyah Muslim organization chairman Din Syamsuddin was made in an 'interfaith leaders' call' function held here on Thursday.
Secretary of the Union of Churches Richard Dauleh said that KPU which was carrying out the people's mandate should act transparently and fairly. The same applied to the presidential and vice presidential candidates. They should play a fair game to produce a quality election while voters are also called on to exercise their voting rights properly.
A similar statement and hope were also aired by other interfaith leaders, Monk Sapta Virya of the Indonesian Mahayana Holy Land/Indonesian Buddhist Council (SMTI/Walubi), the secretary of the Indonesian High Confucius Assembly and other interfaith leaders.
The religious leaders hoped that the July 8 2009 presidential race would run peacefully without clashes and other conflicts. In the meantime, chairman of the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) Amidhan asked KPU to settle the problem of fixed voter's list (DPT) immediately.***1*** (T.A014/A/H-NG/a014) (T.A014/A/A014/A/A014) 03-07-2009 00:32:31 |
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