VIVAnews - Voting Education Network for People (JPPR) and Lingkar Madani (LIMA) are filing a complaint of the General Elections Commission (KPU) to the General Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu). The Commission is being reported for violating Law no. 10/2008 on general elections.
The complaint by the two institutions was received by three members of the Supervisory Body: Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo, Wahidah Suaib, and Agustiani Tio, at 11.00am, Central Jakarta, Tuesday, Nov. 25.
The issue lies with the Finalized Voters List (DPT) that was announced by the Commission on Monday evening, 24 November. The National Coordinator of JPPR, Jeirry Sumampow, views the confirmation of the list as a violation because the Commission had changed the data that had previously been confirmed as being final on 24 October 2008.
The decision to change the Finalized Voters List, he said, shows that the Commission is incapable of and has failed to update the voters list. “This kind of problem can delegitimize election phases, which in turn has the potential to induce lawsuits in the future,” he said.
According to Jeirry the Commission has violated its official oath and ethical codes because on 24 October, the Commission had stated that additions will only be made in West Papua and overseas. However, the Commission has also changed voters lists in other provinces. “This can be categorized as public deceit and delivery of incorrect and inaccurate information to the public,” he said.
Jeirry, along with Director of LIMA, Ray Rangkuti, request the Supervisory Body to immediately investigate the change in the list. “The issue is whether the mistake was made on purpose or not. The investigation is also aimed at finding out the real reasons, as to why KPU still opened the opportunity to change the DPT that they had finalized,” said Ray Rangkuti.
Member of General Elections Supervisory Body, Eka, said that, in principle, the issue that was raised by JPPR and LIMA is in accordance with the Body’s policy. In fact, when the list was finalized on 24 October 2008, the Supervisory Body had sent a warning letter which questioned why the finalized list did not include West Papua and overseas.”
Wahidah Suaib added that KPU is responsible for the intransparent process. Wahidah said that two days before 24 October, KPU should have been able to predict that there were still problems with West Papua and overseas. KPU should have asked relevant stakeholders, such the Supervisory Body, Commission II of the House of Representatives (DPR), and the Department of Domestic Affairs, for input.
Previously, on Monday, 24 November, a member of the Supervisory Body, Eka Cahya Widada, had said that the Body was ready to reprimand the Commission if it was proven to violate any regulations. “The reprimand is addressed to the institution. It is hoped that KPU will forward it to the responsible party,” he said.
However, Eka said, until today there has not been a determination on the type of sanction that will be implemented should a member of the Commission violates an administrative provision. “The one who has the authority to determine the sanction is the Commissioner,” he said.
The complaint JPPR and LIMA will be followed up. "The Supervisory Body will hold a plenary meeting and determine the next steps,” said Wahidah.
Meanwhile, Head of the Commission, Abdul Hafiz Anshary, said that he was prepared to face the lawsuit.”Just point to which law is being violated, which article,” he said. He argued that the decision to change the list was done after looking at objective conditions and considering input from the Commission’s provincial divisions.
“In principle, we were giving a chance to those who indeed have the right to vote. And any inaccuracy, such as names listed twice, or those proven to not have the right to vote, must be crossed out,” he said.
A comparison of the two lists indeed shows a quite significant difference in the number of voters. The national Finalized Voters List on 24 November is smaller than the 24 October version. The difference is about 710,635 voters. The change in the list spans across the 33 provinces.
VIVAnews writers Arfi Bambani Amri and Suryanta Bakti Susila, contributed to this article.
