Serious Indon Oppies Accuse Indon Ambassador To Jiuhu Of Stuffing Ballot Boxes With Pro-Joko Votes!

[JohnTan]

JAKARTA: There have been calls to dismiss Indonesia's envoy to Malaysia over alleged election fraud, after thousands of marked voting papers for next week’s presidential polls were said to have been found in Selangor.

A video, believed to have documented the discovery of marked ballots in favour of incumbent President Joko Widodo - Jokowi - and his running mate Ma’ruf Amin, has gone viral.

Indonesians in Malaysia are scheduled to cast their votes on Sunday (Apr 14).

Mr Jokowi's rival camp has urged the president to immediately revoke Ambassador Rusdi Kirana’s credientials, while the president's supporters said the incident may have been an attempt to delegitimise the election process.

Mr Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, the director of volunteers on the National Committee to elect Mr Prabowo Subianto and Mr Sandiaga Uno, said the president should sack the diplomat, or at least recall him until the election ends. This will allow the election to be carried out with integrity and fairness, he said.


Meanwhile, the committee’s foreign affairs director Irawan Ronodipuro called the alleged vote-rigging “embarrassing” and “despicable”, adding that the incident has defamed Indonesia on an international level.

“How can an ambassador be part of the election team in this election? It has breached the code of ethics and violated the ambassador’s primary role and function. This act has defamed the country,” he said in a statement on Thursday.

Close to a million of registered Indonesian voters will cast their votes in 255 polling stations in six locations in Peninsula Malaysia, according to Jakarta Post.

The Kuala Lumpur office of Elections Supervisory Agency (BAWASLU) said in a statement that the ballots were found in an empty store in Taman Universiti Sungai Tangkas in Bangi, and a house in Bandar Baru Bangi.

Its head of office in Malaysia Yaza Azzahara said about 40,000 to 50,000 marked ballots were found.

BAWASLU commissioner Fritz Edward Siregar said the agency has written to the General Elections Commission (KPU) to postpone the voting process in Malaysia until the issue is addressed.

The commission has sent a team to Malaysia to investigate the incident.

"This concerns a very sensitive issue and since it happened in another country, we're doing a very careful investigation," said KPU chief Arief Budiman.

On Friday, two police reports have been lodged in Malaysia over the discovery of the Indonesian ballot papers, according to local media.

AUTHENTICITY OF VIRAL VIDEO QUESTIONED

Meanwhile, the National Democrat Party (NASDEM), which is under Mr Jokowi's coalition, has questioned the authenticity of the video.

NASDEM's head of media and public communication, Mr Willy Aditya pointed out several "oddities" in the video such as the chanced discovery of the marked ballots in an empty building outside the jurisdiction of the embassy.

"It is very likely that the incident in Malaysia is full of political interest to delegitimise the election and election commission by those who are afraid to lose by saying that the election is rigged," he said in a statement on Thursday.

“This fact goes in line with polling by various agencies which shows that Prabowo-Sandi has been defeated by Jokowi-Ma’ruf,” he added.

Recent polls suggest that the president has a double-digit lead over his challenger.

Mr Willy called for the voting process in Malaysia to be postponed if the case is not solved in time, and urged the election authorities and the police to investigate the case to determine if it was genuine or fabricated.

Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/new...voy-dismissed-alleged-election-fraud-11437444

 

[Hypocrite-The]

Problem easy to solve. Just disallow overseas voting

 

[Hypocrite-The]

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ANALYSIS
Indonesia's election hiccups: pre-marked ballots mar contest between Jokowi and Prabowo
By Indonesia correspondent David Lipson
Posted 1 day ago
Left, Jokowi holds cards as he speaks into a microphone. Right, Prabowo wears a black hat, sunglasses, and points as he speaks.
IMAGE Indonesian President Joko Widodo, left, and his challenger Prabowo Subianto, right, campaigning for the leadership of the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation.(AP)
There were always going to be hiccups. But few expected any major problems before the polls even opened.

Key points:
Tens of thousands of pre-marked ballot papers were discovered in a Malaysian warehouse
Two senior election officials in Malaysia could be dismissed over "conflict of interest"
Petition swells to re-open polls in Sydney after crowds of voters turned away
Now, Indonesia's election supervisory body, Bawaslu, has recommended a rerun of 319,000 pre-poll postal votes cast during pre-polling in Kuala Lumpur.

It followed the discovery of tens of thousands of ballot papers in a Malaysian warehouse, that were pre-marked for the incumbent President Joko Widodo.

Bawaslu officials also recommended the dismissal of two senior election officials in Malaysia over an undisclosed "conflict of interest".

One of those officials happens to be Indonesia's Deputy Chief of Mission in Malaysia, Krishna Hannan.

"The Kuala Lumpur election committee has legally and convincingly been proven to have not carried out their duties objectively, transparently, and professionally in the 2019 election," said Bawaslu Commissioner Rahmat Bagja.

A man in a red shirt is carrying a large white ballot box marked "KPU" on his shoulder, surrounded by ballot boxes.
IMAGE Tens of thousands of ballot papers were pre-marked for the incumbent President Joko Widodo in a Malaysian warehouse.(AP: Achmad Ibrahim)
TPS Sydney Town Hall
IMAGE Indonesian voters in Sydney were turned away after waiting hours to cast their vote.(Photo: Facebook, Esther Suhardi)
That's not all.

Officials also recommended a pre-polling station in Sydney be re-opened after dozens of people were denied the opportunity to vote last Saturday.

A petition to re-open the polls in Sydney gained more than 40,000 signatures.

The polling station was overwhelmed by large crowds, with lines stretching three blocks.

When the poll closed at 6pm, voters, who'd waited hours for their turn, were turned away.

It's an ominous sign.


VIDEO Indonesian voters turned away at Sydney's Town Hall
'It will be a challenge'
Since the fall of the Suharto regime in 1998, Indonesia has run successful and transparent elections under the most challenging conditions.

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On election day, April 17, some 810,000 polling stations are spread across hundreds of islands, in a country infamous for corruption and crumbling infrastructure.

But this year, the degree of difficulty has been ramped up significantly.

On top of the presidential election, 193 million voters are also being asked to cast their ballot for candidates in the National Parliament, as well as their local legislative representatives.

In all, 245,000 candidates are taking part. (That's not a misprint. Almost a quarter of a million candidates are running).

So is the Election Commission (KPU) up to the challenge?

"They have to be," former Indonesian Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa told The World.

"It will be a challenge, but I have confidence the electoral commission will be up for it."

The presidential race
IMAGE Indonesian presidential candidate Joko Widodo during a campaign rally.(AP: Achmad Ibrahim, File)
The presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto, who is widely expected to lose to the popular incumbent Joko Widodo, has foreshadowed mass demonstrations, if his supporters deem the election to be illegitimate.

The pre-polling discrepancies in Kuala Lumpur and Sydney alone are unlikely to meet that benchmark, especially if President "Jokowi" wins by a large margin on April 17.

However, publisher of Reformasi Weekly Kevin O'Rourke says there could be "prolonged tension and unrest" in the event of a close result.

IMAGE Supporters of presidential challenger Prabowo Subianto cheer during his campaign rally in Bali.(AP: Firdia Lisnawati, File)
"[Prabowo supporters] have demonstrated a repeated ability to bring as many as a million demonstrators into central Jakarta in the past," he told the ABC.

"That scenario could occur again if there's a tight electoral outcome or a remotely plausible basis with which Prabowo and his team could contest the electoral outcome."

Election officials will be praying there'll be no more major "hiccups" this election day.