read complete article at: http://www.igc.apc.org/solidarity/atc/82Emily.html
>
> Copyright © 1999 by Against the Current
>
> Indonesia's Facade of Democracy
>
> by Emily Citkowski
>
> Please note that this article went to press before the referendum in East
> Timor and the resulting reactionary violence that followed.
>
> THE ELECTIONS ARE over in Indonesia. The international press, calling
> them "the first free and fair elections in over 44 years," noted the
> relative lack of violence during the campaign period leading up to the
> June 7 vote.
>
> On July 26 the KPU (Electoral Commission) was supposed to ratify the
> election results but only seventeen of the forty-eight parties
> signed. Many of the parties who refused to sign cited fraud as the
> reason. The bylaws of the Electoral Commission stipulate that
> two-thirds of the KPU must sign for the vote count to be official.
> [Ultimately the results were ratified by presidential order, without
> the Commission's endorsement.-ed.]
>
> According to the final unofficial tabulation, reformer Megawati
> Sukarnoputri's PDI-P has received 33.7% of the vote. The ruling
> Golkar came in second with 22.4%. Gus Dur's Muslim reform party is
> next with 12.6% of the vote, and the PPP (formerly one of the two
> government sanctioned opposition parties) received 10.7%. Muslim
> intellectual Amien Rais' party PAN did worse than expected, garnering
> only about 4.1%.
>
> International organizations like the United Nations Development
> Program, who put $94 million into ensuring the election would be fair
> (the United States gave an additional $22 million), praised the
> process, giving themselves a pat on the back for all they had
> contributed. The Carter Center, who sent monitors-including
> Jimmy-lauded the "commitment to democracy, openness, and
> transparency," although they also added that the painfully slow
> process of counting the votes might shake some people's faith in the
> process and lead to "confusion and some suspicion" by the public.
>
> Everyone admitted that there were some flaws in the system and
> cheating in the process, but a little of that was to be expected,
> especially in Indonesia. No one wanted to burst the bubble, and
> counter the tide of support for the election process and the
> democratic reform which must surely result from the great spectacle of
> the campaigns.
>
> In reality, the independent election monitoring committee KIPP has
> documented numerous incidents of poll violation. These include
> botched ballot papers or not enough ballots for registered voters in
> various provinces, and water soluble "indelible" ink so that,
> theoretically, people could vote more than once.
>
> KIPP cited incidents of Golkar party members voting more than once,
> setting up illegal polling booths, and slipping bribes into sample
> ballot papers. Golkar party members in local government in some
> village areas threatened to evict the residents or cease
> infrastructural development projects if the village did not swing a
> Golkar victory. In Pelawali Mamasa village, a Golkar official
> threatened to drag people to the police station if they did not vote
> for his party.
>
> Voter turnout in one province of South Sulawesi was a surprising
> 109.9% -most of these votes were for Golkar. In West Nusa Tenggara
> the ruling party distributed free soap with "Don't forget to vote
> Golkar" printed on the wrapper. It was disclosed that the government
> had funneled World Bank Funds, allocated for social security programs,
> into the campaigns of Golkar and its satellite party PDR.