Dicky Christanto, Jakarta – Vote buying topped the list of election violations investigated by police during the nine months of election campaigning preceding the April 9 polls.
National Police Chief Gen. Bambang Hendarso Danuri told a hearing with the House of Representatives' Commission II on security that law enforcement agencies investigated more than 600 poll violations, 175 of which involved cases of vote buying, commonly known as "money politics".
Misuse of state facilities ranked second with nearly 90 cases, followed by vandalism with 80 cases and campaigning before the official election season began, where there were more than 60 infringements. The police did however drop more than 130 cases for various reasons, including a lack of evidence.
"State prosecutors are in the process of investigating around 310 cases with the intention of bringing them to court, and are still examining more than 165 cases," Bambang told the House commission Wednesday.
Poll observers had anticipated widespread vote buying would occur throughout the election campaign after the Constitutional Court declared in December that the candidates with the most votes would win legislative seats.
If found guilty of vote buying, a candidate may face disqualification.
Missing in the list of violations, however, was the use of minors in rallies, which occurred almost everywhere and was perpetrated by nearly all political parties.
The lawmakers then grilled Bambang for refusing to handle cases on unregistered voters in the recent elections.
The legislators said the police had misinterpreted the legal system when it argued that cases of possible violations in the overall management of the general elections should be dealt with under the State Administration Law.
"Cases related to voter lists don't fall under the State Administrative Law, thus there is no reason for the police not to conduct an investigation into such cases," Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P) legislator Gayus Lumbuun said.
Political parties and civil society groups estimate that around 45 million voters were left disenfranchised during the recent legislative elections because they were not registered on the voter lists.
Among those that reported cases to the police only to have them rejected were the Indonesian Legal Aid and Human Rights Association (PBHI) and Elections Supervisory Body (Bawaslu) member Wirdyaningsih. Bawaslu has said the police should have taken action against the General Elections Commission (KPU) for denying voters their constitutional rights.
Gayus said the police could not wash its hands of the serious violations committed by the KPU.