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Jakarta KPU, Bawaslu guilty of misconduct: Ethics Council

Jakarta Post - August 21, 2014

Jakarta – The Election Organizers Ethics Council (DKPP) said Jakarta General Elections Commission (KPU) commissioners breached ethical codes by opening ballot boxes without a court order.

DKPP member Nur Hidayat Sardini said Thursday that the Jakarta Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) erroneously gave a recommendation based on anonymous reports to the Jakarta poll organizer.

"In reality, the recommendation was baseless because there was no data of names or addresses at polling stations. Bawaslu should have rechecked this data first," Hidayat said.

"We assessed that the opening of the ballot boxes was not allowed. The Jakarta KPU's action could only be justified with a court order."

The complaint regarding the ballot box opening was filed by Ahmad Sully, a member of the Prabowo Subianto-Hatta Rajasa campaign team, against 30 members of election organizers in Jakarta.

Prabowo's camp filed a report with Bawaslu, saying that fraud had occurred in the July 9 presidential election, citing that many voters went to cast their votes using only identification cards (KTP).

Bawaslu then recommended the Jakarta KPU open ballot boxes to check the ballots based on the complaint filed by the Prabowo camp.

Hidayat said the council assessed that Jakarta KPU commissioners had intended to follow correct protocol, but failed at doing so.

He said that these were severe violations as responsibility lied with the polling station committees (KPPS), whose functions had ended. He added that the KPPS members who had committed the violations would not be given any responsibility in the next election.

"Even though the Bawaslu was not included as plaintiff in the report, its chairman and vice chairman had carried misconduct so they could be dismissed," he said.

Hidayat said that the council decided to reprimand election organizers in North Jakarta, Central Jakarta and East Jakarta for opening ballot boxes without court orders.

He said the council had already rehabilitated the reputation of election organizers in West Jakarta. He added that the council had ordered the KPU to follow up with the decision and the Bawaslu to monitor the decision implementation. (put)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2014/08/21/jakarta-kpu-bawaslu-guilty-misconduct-ethics-council.html.

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