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JAKARTA - AN INDONESIAN court has thrown out the results of a gubernatorial election in East Java, citing 'systematic' and 'massive' fraud.
The unprecedented move by the five-year-old Constitutional Court has triggered fears that next year's national elections could be similarly riddled with scandal.
The court yesterday ordered a repeat election in some districts in the highly populous East Java province, while certain other districts were told to recount ballots.
The ruling by the nine judges raised eyebrows because it was the first time that the court had made a ruling involving elections. It was set up in 2003 to deal with matters involving the Constitution.
The court had previously dealt with constitutional issues over electricity law, a new law on tax and matters related to basic rights of Indonesian citizens.
Previous cases involving petitions against election results went through the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land.
But to simplify disputed electoral results, Indonesian legislators in March amended the law to pass contested election results to the Constitutional Court, which does not allow for appeals.
The East Java election commission last month announced that Mr Soekarwo, who is the province's secretary, won the July 23 poll to become East Java's Governor, beating Madam Khofifah Indar Parawansa.
But Madam Khofifah challenged the result, as she and her running mate had reportedly been leading in the early count.
'We refuse to accept the result of the counting and continue our legal process to the Constitutional Court,' she told a news conference in Surabaya last month.
In their ruling, the judges said: 'Based on facts revealed in court, there were clearly serious breaches of law in certain districts that were committed in a systematic, structured and massive way.
'Thus, a remedy by way of cancelling such poll results is needed. Repeat election for those districts must be conducted, while vote recount in other districts must also be conducted.'
Among others, the judges said village heads in certain districts were promised monetary compensation of between 50 million rupiah and 150 million rupiah (between S$6,478 and S$19,437) if they could make a majority of eligible residents in their area vote for Mr Soekarwo.
Indonesia will hold its national elections in April next year and the ruling by the Constitutional Court is seen as a precedent for disputed races where decisions could be made within weeks and there is no appeal.
Mr Gayus Lumbun, deputy chairman of the Indonesian parliament's council which oversees and sets the code of conduct for MPs, told The Straits Times: 'This reminds everyone, especially the government, that for next year's national election, we have a strong body to ensure that any foul play or any abuse of power will be overruled.'
But others feared the court could become an avenue for sore political losers.
'The Constitutional Court has no right whatsoever to dictate whether an election should be repeated or not. It is the authority of the election commission,' Mr Cecep Effendi, a senior researcher at the Indonesian Institute in Jakarta, told The Straits Times.
He said: 'This sets a bad precedent and later on a candidate who is defeated will certainly go to the Constitutional Court and ask for the same kind of favour.'
Indonesia's April elections will fill up 550 parliamentary seats. This will be followed by a direct presidential election slated for July.
'Next year, anyone could contest the result of the legislative election, and then the presidential election would be delayed,' Mr Cecep added.
Mr Dede Utomo, a lecturer at Surabaya University in East Java, doubted the repeat election would work.
'What we may be seeing is an election fatigue in East Java, which already had a low 46 per cent election turnout last time. The grassroots wouldn't really care, because both candidates have very similar programmes,' he said.
The election re-run will have to be held within 60 days and the recount of the votes within 30 days, the court said.
