Jenny Grant, Jakarta – Indonesia's poll watchdog on Friday blasted violations and fraud in the nation's general elections held a day earlier. As Jenny Grant reports from Jakarta the Moslem-backed United Development Party demanded a re-vote in some provinces.
The Independent Election Committee - KIPP - cited multiple voting and intimidation of party observers as some of the violations that occurred on polling day.
Mulyana Kusumah, the Secretary General of KIPP, said 8,000 of the group's volunteers monitored 609 polling stations in 13 cities on polling day.
"In 21 percent of the polling stations we have evidence that puts the result of that polling station in doubt."
The group said there was evidence of double voting in 15 percent of the polling places and violent incidents at six percent of monitored areas.
Party observers were forced to leave 7.7 percent of the polling stations monitored and votes were not counted openly in seven percent of the places.
The chairman of the poll watchdog organization, Goenawan Mohammad, said the violations were systematic because organisers of the elections worked for the ruling Golkar Party, headed by President Suharto.
"Due to the fact that the elections were organised by the bureaucracy and those bureaucrats were forced to maintain a high level of percentage for Golkar, so there was a systematic tendency to violate the rules."
The Moslem-backed United Development Party - The P-P-P - on Friday demanded a re-vote in areas where ballots were counted in secret.
Secretary General of the P-P-P, Tosari Widjaya, said scores of ballot boxes were not opened in the polling booths, but were taken to sub-district government offices to be counted.
The party said it would refuse to sign the relection results unless the General Election Institute responded to the complaints.
The Moslem Party said it is considering legal action against the government over the poll violations.
The government has not yet responded to accusations the elections were not free or fair.
Mr. Widjaya said he had reports that six people were killed in riots on the island of Madura, off the coast of Java.
The riots erupted on election night Thurssday when supporters of the Moslem Party became enraged at early indicators Golkar had seized a huge victory.
Thousands of people went on the rampage in the Marueses town of Sampang, burning government offices, a housing comples and a church.
In the first full day of counting, the P-P-P scored over 23 percent of the votes. Golkar has won around 74 per cent and a badly damaged Indonesian Democracy Party has just under 3 percent. Final results will be announced on June 10.