After allegations of fraud at a number of polling stations in Indonesia, officials are conducting a re-vote and launching investigations.
Hundreds of people turned out to vote again in Sukoharjo, near the city of Solo on Thursday. District Election Supervisor Muladi says his team found evidence of fraud committed at the polling station from a video footage uploaded to YouTube.
“The types of the tear are all the same," he said. "They are identical. Actually last Tuesday we received a valid video evidence of fraud after we cross-checked it with the actual ballots and we found the fraud to be true. ... If the tears had not been identical we would not have continued the case."
The Chairman of the Central Java Election Commission, Joko Purnomo, said that his office has fired officers in charge of troubled polling stations.
"We have even done mass dismissal of election officers in several areas," he said. "For example, we fired the chairman of the General Election Commission of the District of Banyumas, and several others in other districts in Central Java. We fired the perpetrators and we will sue them.”
Abhan Misbah, Election Supervisory Board of Central Java, told VOA that perpetrators of fraud will face criminal charges that carry punishments of six to 18 months in prison.
Prabowo Subianto and Joko Widodo, widely known as Jokowi, have both claimed victory in the July 9 presidential ballot. Official results of the second balloting are expected early next week.
Most pollsters have predicted a win for Widodo based on a quick count sampling. However, two that have predicted a Subianto win have been expelled from the national polling association for failing to allow an audit of their data and collection methods.
This report was produced in collaboration with the VOA Indonesian service.
