The police's credibility and professionalism are being questioned as they failed to progress in their month-long investigation into the contentious voter list fraud cases in the Madurese regencies of Sampang and Bangkalan, East Java.
National Police spokesman Insp. Gen. Abubakar Nataprawira confirmed over the weekend the police had not progressed with investigating the alleged manipulated voter lists during the East Java gubernatorial election.
"We are still waiting either for reports on the suspected fraudulent voter lists from the East Java election supervisory body (Panwaslu) or the authentic voter lists from the provincial elections commission in order to be able to legally investigate the case," Abubakar told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
However, Sri Sugeng Pudjiatmiko, former chairman of East Java Panwaslu, recently said he could no longer deliver the voter lists as Panwaslu's tenure had finished.
Abubakar was obliged to speak to the press after the National Police took over the case from the East Java provincial police shortly after Soekarwo was sworn in as the new governor on Feb. 12, 2009.
The decision to take over the case came when former provincial police chief Insp. Herman Surjadi Sumawiredja declared KPUD chairman Wahyudi Purnomo the main suspect on Feb. 18. On Feb. 19, the National Police replaced Herman with Brig. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam and suspended the investigation into the case.
Protesting the national unit's intervention, Herman chose to enter his mandatory retirement this May and filed a resignation letter to the headquarters declaring the interference "from a higher position" as the main reason for his departure. Although he later apologized for exposing the case to the press as he was a senior police official in principle, he did not retract his statement.
Khofifah, Soekarwo's former gubernatorial rival, questioned the case takeover, which she said undermined police professionalism.
"Are the provincial police and a high caliber investigator like Herman unable to investigate such a small case? The people will no longer believe in the police if they cannot thoroughly investigate such cases."
She said she had no ambition to have the home minister annul the gubernatorial race's result but thought the case could be taken as an important lesson for all sides and the rule of law should be upheld.
Khofifah admitted she was disappointed with the police who she said were reluctant to investigate a series of violations during the second round of the gubernational election in East Java on Nov. 4, 2008 despite the Constitutional Court's orders to do so.
She stressed her campaign and legal team had already collected all the evidence on election violations during the second and third rounds in Bangkalan and Sampang.
"We are ready to present all the evidence to the police, including the records and the video on the vicious circle between the KPUD, Panwaslu and the police in relation to the reports on the election violations," she said. Khofifah's legal team, led by Muh. Maruf, brought the case to the Surabaya District Court in a final attempt to attain justice.
Hadar N. Gumay, executive director of the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO), said it was obvious the police did not want to investigate the case.
He added the police could ask the Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) to force the local KPUD to give voter lists to the police.
"Apparently the police are trying to protect the interests of an influential individual or group. Otherwise they would do anything to settle this case, instead of just waiting in vain," he said.
The chairman of the local polling body in Sampang, Dofirsyah, denied a markup of voters in the voter list but admitted numerous irregularities and administrative mistakes during the voter list's verification and validation period.
He refused to share the voter list used during the revote and appealed to those defeated in the election to accept the result in order to avoid triggering social unrest around the island. "Why do we have to question the voter list when the gubernatorial election is over and we now have a legitimate governor and deputy governor? It is better for Khofifah and her running mate Moedjiono to accept their defeat and help the provincial government improve the people's social welfare," he said.
Soekarwo is affiliated with the Democratic Party and the National Mandate Party (PAN), while Khofifah is supported by the United Development Party (PPP), the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) and a number of smaller parties.
[JP/Ridwan Max Sijabat, Dicky Christanto, Indra Harsaputra and Ahmad Faisal.]