News

East Java election commission chief a suspect in election fraud

NU Online  ·  Rabu, 18 Februari 2009 | 20:28 WIB

Surabaya, NU Online
The police have named East Java election commission chief Wahyudi Purnomo a suspect for allegedly fabricating over 300,000 names on the disputed list of voters in the Bangkalan and Sampang regencies.

East Java Police chief Insp. Gen. Herman Surjadi Sumawiredja said on Wednesday that the police had received a complaint from losing governor candidate Khofifah Indar Parawansa that 345,000 names on the list of voters, or 27 percent of all voters in the two regencies were fabricated.<>

"We have cross-checked in the field, and from 368 voting areas, we found at least 29,949 names which were not correct,” Herman told tempointeraktif.com.

When asked, Herman said the police had not yet decided if Wahyudi would be detained or not.

The election in East Java was finally won by Soekarwo and Syaifullah Yusuf, after the Constitutional Court ordered a repeat balloting and vote counting at the two regencies.

Khofifah and running mate Mudjiono (popularly known by their nickname, the Kaji pair) filed another lawsuit to the Constitutional Court, demanding the court annul the result of the repeat election, but the court rejected the suit. (jp/dar)