BAWASLU TO QUESTION PANWASLU ABOUT ABSENCE OF ELECTION-RULE VIOLATIONS

Jakarta, July 14 (ANTARA) - The Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) will question Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) chapters in several regions that had reported no election rule violations had occurred in their areas in the July 8 presidential race.

"Is it true that the Panwaslu chapters in some provinces, districts and towns didn't receive any report about election rule violations by the election participants," Wahida Suaib, working group chairperson of vote cast, vote count and recapitulation of the July 8 presidential direct election, said here on Tuesday.

Wahida said, according to reports Bawaslu had received from the regions, not a single election-rule violation had happened in seven provinces, namely West Papua, North Maluku, West Sulawesi, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Gorontalo, South Sumatra and Bengkulu.
According to Wahida, Bawaslu will in the near future summon the working groups' chairpersons of the provincial Panwaslus to provide correct information about the conduct of the election.

"It (the absence of violations) is true it would be an extraordinary achievement but is it factually true?" she asked.

Perhaps, one of the supporting teams of the presidential/vice presidential tickets had reported about violations but the Panwaslu had not verified it, Wahida said.

"If such condition had really happened, it is a strange thing," Wahida Suaib said, adding that until July 12, 2009 the Bawaslu had received reports on 539 cases of violations from across the country.

Of the number, 401 were categorized as administrative cases and the remaining 188 cases would be followed up in accordance with the existing laws.

In addition, 13 of the 67 criminal cases, were followed up, and other violations totaled 71 cases, the Bawaslu official said.

The General Elections Commission (KPU) organized the presidential election on Wednesday, July 8. Three presidential candidates contested the race for the 2009-2014 term of office.

The three presidential and vice presidential pairs were Megawati Soekarnoputri and her running mate Prabowo Subianto (Mega-Pro), Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his pair Boediono (SBY-Boediono), and Jusuf Kalla who ran for president with Wiranto (JK-WIN).***1***