Andra Wisnu, Bali – The Constitutional Court's decision to allow candidates with the most votes to claim seats has triggered internal conflicts in parties, an official stated.
During a meeting with the Bali Police chief and the Bali Regional Elections Commission (KPUD) in Denpasar on Wednesday, the Bali election supervisory committee (Panwaslu) warned of even more political clashes this year than during the 2004 election.
"Because this year, we will not only see parties campaigning against parties, but also legislative candidates within one party competing against each other," said Panwaslu chairman I Wayan Juana.
The campaign season, which began unofficially on July 18 and will become more intense on March 16 when parties hold their caucuses, has seen Bali emblazoned with various campaign material advertising political parties and legislative candidates.
Juana said this competitive atmosphere may turn violent due to a court ruling that allows the legislative candidates who secure the most votes to gain a legislative seat, which seemed to have the unintended consequence of pitting legislative candidates within one party against each other.
In that ruling, the court annulled two articles that would have allowed political party leaders to handpick their close supporters to represent the parties in the national and regional legislatures, rather than having the seats going to the individual candidates who won the most votes.
In effect, Juana said, legislative candidates had begun campaigning for themselves outside of their party's official line and discrediting other legislative candidates from within their party.
He said some candidates even went as far as vandalizing their rivals' campaign advertisements and marking their campaign territory.
"We have already seen campaign advertisements that were vandalized, slashed with some sort of sharp object," he said. "Sadly, I believe it will only get worse once we get closer to voting day."
Juana said there had been 500 campaign violations leading up to voting day, 30 of which were for destruction of campaign material and vandalism.
He predicted cases of campaign law violation to be twice the number of legislative candidates, or 9,908 cases in Bali alone this year compared to the 4,954 legislative candidates competing for seats in the Bali Provincial Representatives Council (DPRD) and the Regional Representatives Council (DPD).
In comparison, Panwaslu data showed that the 2004 election saw 8,013 campaign violations nationally.
His warning came in line with the Bali Police Chief Teuku Ashikin Hussein's earlier warning, who predicted more security threats in the 2009 election.
When asked about the police's preparations for any security threats, Ashikin said he planned to gather the Bali KPUD and all political parties for a meeting in early February at the latest. "We'll tell them the consequences of violating campaign rules," he said.