Anita Rachman – An election watchdog has raised concerns about the quality of regional polls, painting a picture of an anything-goes attitude as candidates take advantage of a lack of oversight by organizers.

The Election Supervisory Board (Bawaslu) said on Wednesday that 1,767 violations had been reported in 154 district and municipal elections, and seven gubernatorial polls this year. There are 244 regional elections scheduled for this year.

"Our regional elections are unsatisfactory," said Nur Hidayat Sardini, the board's chairman. "It all goes back to the quality of election organizers – how they prepare for the polls, the regulatory issues and so on."

He added that of the recorded violations, 1,179 were categorized as administrative in nature, 572 criminal and 16 as covering ethical issues.

Common violations that could be attributed to poor preparations by regional polling commissions included multiple voter registrations and the failure to update voter lists.

Unqualified candidates – with some having criminal records – have been allowed to run, and there have been instances of ballot boxes lacking seals.

The criminal violations centered largely on allegations of vote-buying or unlawful campaigning by incumbents.

Wirdyaningsih, a Bawaslu member, said her office had reported 95 percent of the violations to the national-level General Elections Commission (KPU), but that it had only followed up on 27 cases.

Of the 532 criminal complaints that Bawaslu forwarded to the police this year, only 168 have been processed. "Our reports were barely tou ched," she said.

Bambang Eka Cahya Widodo, another Bawaslu member, said regional police officials were often the allies of incumbent officials, and could hardly be expected to act on reported violations by the ruling administration.

Bambang added the Bawaslu's authority was limited to reporting violations to the KPU or the police, as the body lacked any power to prosecute cases.

But Syamsul Bahri, a KPU member, said the commission always followed up on the reports it received from Bawaslu.

He said the KPU needed time to verify the reports before taking any action on them. The commission, he added, communicated intensively with Bawaslu over its reports.

He also dismissed Nur's claim that the poor quality of the elections was the fault of the KPUDs, which are the regional offices of the KPU.

"We haven't conducted our annual evaluation yet, but I'm sure the people know how we've performed," Syamsul said. "Let's not forget that organizing elections isn't the exclusive domain of the KPU. It involves other stakeholders, including political parties."