Jakarta – An independent election monitoring group said on Monday national polls on Thursday would not be fair because they favoured the ruling Golkar party.

Mulyana Kusumah, secretary-general of the Indonesian Election Monitoring Committee (Kipp), said the election process was neither free nor fair.

Nearly 125 million people are eligible to vote for 425 elected seats in the House of Representatives following a 27-day campaign that ended last Friday.

The other 75 seats are reserved for the military that does not vote.

Kipp, set up last year ahead of the national and local elections held every five years, said it had recorded a number of violations.

It said state television had given Golkar substantially more air time than the other two parties, the Muslim-oriented United Development Party and the Christian-Nationalist Indonesian Democratic Party.

Kipp urged the People's Consultative Assembly, the highest constitutional body, to guarantee a democratic poll.

The assembly, comprising the 500 members of parliament and 500 appointed members, will meet next March to elect the president and vice-president and approve government policy.

Kipp also said violence during the campaign, which culminated in the deaths of more than 140 people in a shopping mall fire and riots in South Kalimantan province last Friday, was caused by social discontent among the people. Three members of Kipp are currently in prison convicted of subversion, defamation and inciting riots.