M. Ilham, Jakarta – According to the government the elections in West Papua were a success, however for the people of Papua this cannot be said to be true, moreover as many as 70,000 Papuan people were not registered to vote. Identification cards are not longer used at polling stations [voters must have a separate voter registration card]. So if we talk about that kind of democracy there is no space in these provinces for the participation of the people.

According to Charles Imbir, the Papuan people did not participate in a voluntary manner, rather it was because of intimidation by means of threatening bringing martial law into force in Papua. So if we talk about democracy there was no room there for the participation of the people. The participation of the Papuan people was not voluntary but rather because of intimidation by threatening that martial law will be brought into force in Papua said Imbir in a discussion with Jak News FM Radio.

Meanwhile, Taufik Abda from Cesar said that in some circles it has been said that holding elections in Aceh was inappropriate because Aceh is under a state of martial law. If seen from the level of participation by the people perhaps the 2004 elections were the most successful to date in Aceh. But in terms of quality, they were in fact far from successful, because people were forced to vote. Moreover there were those who were mobilised to vote at specific polling stations which had been prepared beforehand on that grounds that they were in a “black” zone [a zone controlled by the Free Aceh Movement (GAM)]. One day beforehand, those living in black zones were forcibly evacuated on voting day to ensure that they participated in the elections.

Taufik added that the socialisation of the elections was only carried the day before voting so it was only then that the people were given an explanation about the voting procedures. As a result many ballots were damaged either intentionally or invalidated because people did not understand how to vote.

Ardian from City Forum (Forkot) agreed saying that the elections cannot be viewed in terms of the total number of people who participated but must be seen in terms of whether or not they were forced to vote or did so by their own choice. However it was not just in Aceh and West Papua that they voters were forced to vote. In Aceh people were afraid of being accused of being members of the GAM if they did not vote, in Jakarta people voted pragmatically or for whoever had paid them.

[Translated by James Balowski.]