Vote buying still mars legislative elections

Vote buying still mars the countrys legislative elections on Wednesday despite threat of criminalization of such practice.

Indonesians cast votes to elect candidates for the members of the House of Representatives, provincial legislative assembly, district legislative body and the regional representative council.

On Tuesday April 8, a day before the voting day a vegetable peddler was used by an election contestant to buy votes.

The vegetable trader, riding a bicycle with stickers of the candidate hanging on it, gave three eggs free for each of housewives buying vegetables, saying," Dont forget to vote for this," handing out a name card of the candidate. 

The move was illegal as the campaigning days were already over and it was widely known as "pre-dawn attack" as it was launched on the eve of the election.

The candidate is from a big political party contesting a seat at the provincial legislative assembly of Riau.

A group of other people claiming to be cadres of the party also came to the houses giving also egg free and a poster of the candidate. 

Another candidate ,a woman, used a similar tactic to garner votes on Tuesday in the sub-district of Tenayan Raya. 

The female candidate contesting a seat at the Pekanbaru city council bribed the local voters with rice, bottled tea , sugar and canned condensed milk.

"From afternoon until almost midnight today a number of supporters of the candidate were busy giving foodstuff free to the people," Ali (53), a resident of the Bertuah Sejahtera housing complex said .

The candidate used some of the community leaders to coax the people and distribute her name card although the campaigning days were already over, he said. 

The local people looked pleased with the gift, although it was not certain if they would vote for the candidate, he said.

In the sub-district of Tampan, two other woman candidates, contesting a seat were also allegedly launched what was called pre-dawn attack.

The two women, mother and daughter respectively candidates for DPD and provincial legislative assembly of Riau hired head of the neighborhood chairman to tell the community members to vote for the them. 

Bawaslu reports

Earlier the Election Watch Dog (Bawaslu) of Riau reported a regional legislative assembly candidate allegedly seeking to bribe voters with batik dress.

The Riau police receiving the report said Bawaslu accused the candidate of committing "money politics" in a housing complex in the sub-district of Siak Hulu, Kampar.

Chief spokesman of the Riau police Adj. Sr. Comr Guntur Aryo Tejo told reporters the report, submitted on Friday by Bawaslu head Edy Syarifudin is being processed.

Meanwhile, Indonesia Forum for Budget Transparency (Fitra) said the pre-dawn attacks are still rampant in various ways despite threat of criminal charges 

The Forum said it had found 35 cases mainly "money politics" ahead of the election day by legislative candidates.

"Some of the cases have been reported to Bawaslu of Riau and to police," Riau Fitra coordinator Usman said.

There were 20 election related cases already reported to the election watchdog including misuse of state facility and money politics, Usman said 

He said the candidates involved in the cases were from almost all political parties.

"They are candidates of Golkar, PAN, PDI Perjuangan, Demokrat and Gerindra and other smaller parties," he said. 

So far two candidates , one for DPD and another for Riau legislative assembly, involved in money politics have been reported to police, he said. 

Ineffective 

Political observer from the University of Andalas, Syaiful Wahab, said "money politics" would continue to be rampant in political campaigns in the country as law enforcement is too weak.

So far no offender has been punished. 

"The Constitutional Court have acquitted almost all suspects in money politics on weak evidence," Syaiful said, adding the concept of money politics is very ambiguous.

The Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) has said money politics are against Islam. 

MUI chairman Din Syamsuddin called on the Indonesian people not to vote for those seeking to buy votes , saying those using illegal ways to win a seat at the House of Representative could not be expected to be honest in fighting fro the people interest

Source: ANTARA