Suherdjoko and Desy Nurhayati, Semarang, Jakarta – National Awakening Party (PKB) members affiliated with Abdurrahman "Gus Dur" Wahid have besieged a local elections commission office for the second day in a row in protest against the registration of legislative candidates from Muhaimin Iskandar's rival camp.
The protesters, members of the Garda Bangsa youth wing, carried a mock coffin bearing the name Abdul Kadir Karding, a legislative candidate from the Muhaimin faction.
They also brought an effigy of a corpse labeled as the General Elections Commission (KPU), which, they claim, is refusing to hear the truth.
Slogans on their posters read, "If Gus Dur abstains from voting, so will we", "The PKB will break down if Gus Dur resigns" and "Without Gus Dur we retreat".
Police allowed protest coordinators only to enter the Central Java General Elections Commission (KPUD) office targeted in the protest.
Coordinator Yusuf Chudlori was met by local KPUD officials Ida Budhiati, Ari Pradhanawati and Slamet Sudjono.
Chudlori called on the KPU to be consistent in upholding the law and to respect the PKB's internal guidelines.
According to a Supreme Court ruling, the leadership of the PKB should revert to that decided during the Semarang convention.
During the convention, Gus Dur was named chairman of the Syuro board of patrons, Muhyidin Arubusman as secretary, Muhaimin Iskandar as the Tanfidz executive council chairman and Lukman Edy as secretary-general.
Chudlori added that the PKB's central executive board had determined the leadership structure of the Central Java executive board, naming KH Hayatun Abdullah Hadziq as chairman, Asryrofi Masyito as secretary of the Syuro board with Yusuf Chudlori as chairman, and Muhammad Hendri Wicaksono as secretary of the Tanfidz council.
Chudlori also sought to know on what grounds the KPUD had accepted the registrations of Abdul Kadir Karding and Fuad Hidayat, who registered on behalf of the party's provincial executive board.
Central Java KPUD member Slamet Sudjono said his office had worked according to its functions and authority.
"The election law stipulates that the KPU will ask for clarification from a party's central executive board in the event of double leadership. And if the board also has double leadership, then the KPU will ask for clarification from the Justice and Human Rights Ministry," he said.
In Jakarta, State Secretary Hatta Rajasa rejected claims by Gus Dur that President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono had intervened in the decision to approve lists of PKB legislative candidates from Muhaimin Iskandar's camp.
The decision was entirely the responsibility of the KPU, he said.
"The President has never had any intervention in the KPU because the commission is independent. It is common for the government to communicate with the KPU, but any communication is always in line with the law," Hatta said at the State Palace.
He said the approval of the PKB legislative candidates was an internal matter for the PKB, and thus not the President's concern.