Khofifah: East Java sets bad precedent

Jakarta, NU Online
Hundreds of votes cast by one person, dozens more by people yet to be born and numerous votes from children who are too young to vote were just some of the errors that cost Khofifah Indar Parawansa the East Java election, she says.

“This is a blatant violation of democracy, and a blatant violation of people’s rights,” said Khofifah, the defeated East Java gubernatorial candidate, during a visit to The Jakarta Post office in Jakarta on Saturday.<>

Khofifah had brought with her some examples of the allegedly erroneous voter lists that were used by the East Java provincial polling body (KPUD) during the gubernatorial election last year. And the data seemed to provide evidence of what the General Election Commission (KPU) chief Abdul Hafiz Anshary admitted to reporters on Friday— that the East Java registered voters list was questionable at best, and erroneous at worst.

On Friday, the KPU disclosed that its preliminary investigations had discovered many voters had been registered with similar citizen numbers, adding that it was still checking the validity of the voter list data. On Saturday, Khofifah arrived with more (somewhat astounding) details of the alleged voter list manipulation.

One example Khofifah mentioned was of Rohli, which is a name shared by 19 people in Karang Penang regency, East Java. One of the Rohlis there had an ID number shared by 428 others, of different genders, under different names, at different addresses, but all on the East Java registered voters list.

Another example was several people listed who were apparently born in 2044 and 2054.

Khofifah said her campaign team had initially thought the mistakes were simple administrative typos, but then the number of yet-to-be-born voters and recurring I.D. numbers — numbering into the thousands — led her to believe the election was rigged.

When asked why her team had not brought this up during their first case hearing at the Constitutional Court, Khofifah said they had to spend weeks compiling the data and comparing the discrepancies.

However, when her team filed a second lawsuit under her new findings, the Constitutional Court rejected it. The court said the results of the East Java race had been settled beyond doubt and that future grievances would be handled by  the police.

Khofifah said she plans to pursue the case through the District Court, while East Java police are also now facing controversy in connection with the resignation of its former chief, Insp. Gen. Herman Surjadi Sumawiredja, who was investigating the alleged fraud case.

But for Khofifah, the gubernatorial race is over and she insists that she no longer wants the position.

What Khofifah made clear during her visit was that she came not to push for a rescheduled election or a vote recount, but to warn of the possible dangers that could undermine the success of the upcoming legislative and presidential elections.

“I don’t mind being the first victim of this systematic election fraud. But the fact that even I know that I’ve been cheated should be a warning to political parties about the future of this democracy.” (jp/dar)