Anita Rachman – The House of Representatives will next week launch an investigation into alleged polling fraud cases that may have granted seats to the wrong candidates, a legislator said on Thursday.

Hakam Naja, deputy chairman of House Commission II overseeing domestic affairs, said the first person to be called to testify would be Constitutional Court Chief Justice Mahfud M.D., who last month revealed he had reported a former polling commissioner on suspicion of fraud.

"There have been allegations that there are actually many election fraud cases, so we're calling the team looking into these cases the working committee on the election mafia," said Hakam, a representative of the National Mandate Party (PAN).

"Pak Mahfud is willing to come and testify. It is important to get the Constitutional Court's side of the case because the court houses all the rulings on electoral disputes. The case involving Andi Nurpati will be used as the point fo entry."

Andi, a former member of the General Elections Commission (KPU), has been accused by Mahfud of using a falsified copy of a Constitutional Court ruling to grant a seat in the House to a candidate from the People's Conscience Party (Hanura) at the expense of a candidate from the Great Indonesia Movement Party (Gerindra). The matter has since been resolved, with the rightful candidate getting the disputed seat.

Hakam said that besides Mahfud, the House would also call in Andi, her former driver Hari Almafintono, and former justice Arsyad Sanusi, whom Hari previously claimed had sent a copy of the disputed ruling to Andi.

Hakam said her case could lead to the discovery of other seats at the House that had been fraudulently obtained. He added the probe would require comprehensive data from both the KPU and the Elections Supervisory Board (Bawaslu).

"We want to know how the letter [allegedly falsified by Andi] came into being," he said. "Also how many letters the KPU received via fax, and how many of them were used as their legal basis to rule on electoral disputes."

Hakam added the problem could become very complex and involved many parties, thus the committee would work over two House sitting periods.

Arif Wibowo, a Commission II legislator from the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI-P), said that only by assessing the raw data from each polling station in the disputed constituencies would it be possible to get a clear picture of whether a seat at the House had been wrongfully assigned.

"To find out how many seats are now being occupied illegally, we need to check the vote counts. This could be an issue not just at the national level, but also in regional elections."

However, Arif said checking the data might not be possible because the KPU was allowed to sell or destroy its data once electoral disputes were resolved.

Gede Pasek Suardika, from the ruling Democratic Party, said that although Andi was now a fellow Democrat, the party would not hinder the probe into her role in the alleged fraud. He added the working committee would look at several cases, seeking to "find out whether the perpetrators did it based on political interests or money."

Andi did not reply to the Jakarta Globe's request for comment.