Jadi ingat cerita kelinci VS kura-kura. Cuma di sini kura-kuranya
dilempari batu, karena ditakutkan banyak cetak suara palsu di balik batoknya.
999 Untuk DPR Pusat
(update: 9 Juni 1999, 21:15 WIB)
PDI P 2068720
PKB 1133175
Partai Golkar 841574
PPP 472790
PAN 317324
-----
June 9, 1999
Indonesia Defends Slow Vote Count
Filed at 10:04 a.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) -- Indonesian election officials insisted today there
was nothing sinister about the extra time it was taking to count votes from
the
country's first democratic election in 44 years.
But election observers and opposition parties were not so sure, especially
given
Indonesia's long history of vote fraud.
Two days after the polls closed Monday, only 5.3 percent of the 113 million
ballots had been tabulated, raising suspicion over the fairness of the
result.
Before the election, officials promised to have half the votes counted by
late
Tuesday.
Election officials blamed the delays on laborious checks against cheating,
their own lack of experience and logistical challenges in a nation of 210
million people and 13,000 islands.
``We have to understand that across the country, we have workers who are
not capable of doing speedy work,'' said Rudini, chairman of the General
Election Commission, or KPU. ``There is no political background to the
delays.
The election commission has opted for accuracy, not speed.''
Rudini, like many Indonesians, uses only one name.
Election officials also noted that 60 percent of the votes were cast in rural
or remote villages without fax machines or computers to relay counts.
Foreign observers, who reported Monday that the election appeared to go
smoothly with only scattered irregularities, were more cautious today.
``I am extremely concerned about the slowness with which the count has
taken place,'' said John G. Morgan, head of a team of monitors from the
European Union. ``We also have reports of discrepancies in the vote tallies.
If this is true, it will cast grave doubt on the whole process. The slowness
itself engenders mistrust and doubt.''
Former President Carter and the Washington-based National Democratic
Institute for International Affairs issued a joint statement saying that
while
the election was ``largely peaceful and free of violence,'' the counting
process should be expedited.
``Continuing delays could give rise to confusion and tensions among
contestants and the public,'' the statement said.
Even though the reform party of opposition leader Megawati Sukarnoputri
was leading in the early results, it criticized the count. Laksamana Sukardi,
the treasurer of Megawati's Indonesian Democratic Party for Struggle, said
the delay might mean vote-rigging was under way.
The pace of results had begun to dampen some of the enthusiasm for
Monday's peaceful election. Turnout was more than 96 percent.
The Jakarta stock market, which had jumped 12.2 percent Tuesday on
the peaceable balloting, fell 1.4 percent today. The nation's currency, the
rupiah, fell 2.6 percent against the dollar.
In Jakarta, supporters of the ruling Golkar Party demonstrated today for
faster vote tabulation and four dozen students demanded an independence
referendum for Aceh province, where a violent separatist movement led
many people to stay away from the poll.
The vote will determine 462 of Parliament's 500 seats. The rest will go to
appointees of the powerful military, which cannot vote. The legislators will
join 200 government appointees in choosing a new president in November.
Monday's vote was the first since former President Suharto resigned in
May 1998 amid riots and pro-democracy protests.
Indonesia's only open election was in 1955, just after the country gained
independence. Elections held since were largely rigged in favor of
government candidates.
