Bagus BT Saragih, Jakarta – Which one tells lies, the Attorney General's Office (AGO) or the police?
While the AGO publicly announced on Monday that General Elections Commission (KPU) chief Abdul Hafiz Anshary had been declared a suspect in election document falsification, the police continue to deny that he is a suspect.
Deputy Attorney General Darmono said on Monday that Abdul had been named a suspect and charged with falsifying a letter verifying the results of the 2009 legislative election for the constituency of West Halmahera, North Maluku.
"We have accepted the SPDP [notification of the commencement of an investigation] on the case and the KPU chief's name is listed as a suspect," he told reporters while showing a copy of the SPDP to the anxious press.
On Tuesday, National Police chief Gen. Timur Pradopo and chief detective Comr. Gen. Sutarman separately denied the AGO's claim that Abdul had been named a suspect. "The police haven't named anyone a suspect in this case yet. We are still working on it," Sutarman said.
When asked why the police had denied Darmono's statement on Abdul's status, AGO spokesman Noor Rachmad said, "Pak Darmono is not lying. His statement was not baseless."
Abdul also held a media conference to deny media headlines reporting that he was a suspect of election fraud. "Pak Darmono might have been misinformed. I believe the police are professional in doing their job," he told the press.
Neta S. Pane of the Indonesia Police Watch said he suspected that the police had named Abdul a suspect long ago but had not wanted to make the information public.
"I believe the police have been hiding the fact that Abdul has been named a suspect for hidden reasons; most likely because of political interference [from certain parties]," Neta told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.
"A SPDP always carries the name of at least one suspect. It is peculiar that the police keep denying that Abdul is a suspect, but admit they sent the SPDP to the AGO," he added.
The election fraud case is just one of dozens of incidences of alleged fraud in the 2009 elections, which saw Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono's Democratic Party become the majority party at the House of Representatives.
The House has formed a working committee on election fraud to probe the cases. At the center of all the election cases are the police, which under the law have the authority to investigate the cases.
However, antigraft activists have questioned the police's impartiality after a series of decisions that were perceived as biased. One of the fraud case has attracted widespread public attention and involves former KPU member Andi Nurpati.
She has been accused of involvement in forging a Constitutional Court (MK) document to help legislative candidate Dewi Yasin Limpo win a legislative seat for the South Sulawesi constituency.
Dewi, however, eventually lost the seat after the forgery was uncovered by Constitutional Court justices, who then informed the KPU to annul Dewi's so-called victory.
The case become highly charged after Andi suddenly announced that she had been recruited as a Democratic Party executive only months after the 2009 elections. The announcement triggered speculation that her new position in the party was a form of "compensation" for her efforts in the KPU in favoring the now ruling party.
The probe by the House committee concluded that it was highly likely that Andi was involved in forging the document, but the police have yet to name Andi a suspect, repeatedly claiming that there is insufficient evidence to charge the politician.
Irregularities in the police investigation into Abdul' case appears to have increased skepticism among a public already cynical about the police's "reluctance" to charge Andi.
Since 2009, the police's credibility in investigating election-related cases has been repeatedly questioned.
In April 2009, for example, Insp. Gen. Herman Surjadi Sumawiredja, then East Java Police chief, was suddenly replaced by Insp. Gen. Anton Bachrul Alam after the former declared East Java Elections Commission chief a suspect in a fraud case involving the province's gubernatorial election.
The election saw Soekarwo, supported by the Democratic Party, being elected. After Herman's replacement, the case against the East Java Elections Commission chief was dropped. (msa)