SBY points finger at elections commission

The General Elections Commission (KPU) is fully responsible for the 2009 elections, President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said Thursday, in response to demands that he explain why millions of eligible voters were disenfranchised.

“While up until the 1999 elections the party responsible for the elections was the president, with the KPU reporting to the President, this is not the case in the 2009 elections,” he said in a televized address at the presidential palace, citing the current law on elections.

“Therefore the role of the government, the political parties and elements of society is to assist the KPU,” Yudhoyono said, exactly a week after legislative elections.

A number of organizations have filed lawsuits against the government, the Home Ministry and the Elections Commission, over elections violations related to the voter lists. A number of political parties plan to file similar lawsuits.

Ahead of the April 9 polls many citizens across the country said they had found that they were not on the list of eligible voters, even though they had identity cards and had lived in their area for a long time.

An analyst has suggested that at least 10 million citizens were disenfranchised, estimating that 20 residents at each of more than 500,000 polling stations were not on the list of over 171 million eligible voters.

The President was, however, quick to add that other parties shared the blame. The KPU, he said, had invited political parties and legislative candidates, along with local election committees, to give feedback on the provisional voter lists.

The task shows the division of labor between the KPU, the election supervisory body, the government, political parties and citizens, Susilo said.

"But clearly determining the eligible voters' list is the authority of the KPU," he said.

He added that as president he had issued all the necessary regulations to help the commission with its task.

Based on input from several governors Yudhoyono said there was both a "lack of information from the KPU" and also a "lack of response" mainly from candidates, the local administrations and citizens.

The President said he was "deeply concerned" with the voter list problem, but added that suspicions of cheating without evidence would be "premature and bad politics". Yet he "agreed 100 percent" that alleged violations should be legally processed and that the perpetrators should be "firmly punished."

Meanwhile, KPU chairman Abdul H. Anshary ruled out demands to annul the results of the elections, the final tally of which is expected to be announced on May 9.

"There's no strong reason," he said Thursday.

"There has to be evidence. Besides, nothing in the law justifies the annulment of the election's result."

Any shortcomings "would not have been intentional," he said.

He urged citizens who were unregistered to ensure they were listed for July's presidential election.

Election expert Hadar Gumay cited the law, saying it does not provide the possibility of repeating elections based on unregistered voters.

A revote would only be possible "if there was a lawsuit stating

that the elections law is unconstitutional, given that the Constitution guarantees the citizen's right to vote," he said.