Surabaya – The Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P)'s presidential campaign team in East Java province has denied intimidating 274,000 workers of state plantation company PT Perkebunan Nusantara (PTPN) XII in an attempt to get them to vote for Megawati Soekarnoputri and Hasyim Muzadi in the July 5 election.

"What occurred there was not intimidation but socialization carried out by the company, but not on the instructions of the Mega-Hasyim campaign team. It was [the company's] own initiative," the chairman of the PDI-P campaign team in East Java, Sirmadji, said here on Tuesday. He was commenting on the findings of an investigation by the Golkar Party's presidential campaign team, which stated that 274,000 PTPN XII workers were intimidated into voting for Megawati and Hasyim in the first round of the presidential election.

"We have reported the findings to the provincial office of the General Elections Commission [KPU] and the Election Supervisory Committee [Panwaslu]. We have asked for a revote or the exclusion of the votes cast in the polling booths set up by the company in the districts of Banyuwangi, Jember, Situbondo, Bondowoso, Lumajang, Malang, Ngawi, Blitar, and Kediri," the chairman of the Golkar campaign team here, Choirul Anam, said on Monday.

Sirmadji said he did not see how what had happened in PTPN XII had benefited Megawati and Hasyim, whom he said "always played according to the rules." "Thus, if the KPU or Panwaslu decides to hold a revote or exclude the votes, we will abide by their decision," he added.

Asked if there had been an instruction from PDI-P official Laksamana Sukardi, who is also the state minister for state enterprises, to intimidate the workers, Sirmadji said that this question should be addressed to Laksamana himself.