Nurochman Arrazie, Bandar Lampung – Hundreds of workers and students from the Volunteers of the People’s Struggle for the Liberation of the Motherland or Spartan commemorated Labour Day in a protest at the Lampung regional General Election Commission (KPU) offices. They were demanding that the KPU resign because it committed fraud in the recent legislative elections by manipulating the final voter list (DPT).

“Millions of workers in Indonesia were unable to use their right to vote in the April 9 elections because they were not included on the final voter list”, said Spartan coordinator Dewa Putu Adi Wibawa on Friday May 1.

The demonstrators marched from the Bandar Lampung Elephant Monument to the KPU offices and the Lampung provincial Election Supervisory Committee (Panwaslu) carrying a bier with the writing “Democracy is Dead”.

In front of the KPU office the workers held a theatrical action depicting irregularities in the elections such as money politics, vote inflation and manipulation of the final voter list, which ending with the bier being set on fire.

According to Dewa, the administration of President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono (SBY) and the KPU colluding to muzzle the political rights of the working class. “The evidence is that only 1.5 million workers out of 6.5 [million] overseas workers were registered as voters. SBY’s victory means the continued survival of foreign companies in Indonesia that largely bring suffering the working class and ordinary people”, said Dewa.

Dewa also responded positively to the National Human Rights Commission’s (Komnas HAM) investigation into manipulation of the final voter list in Lampung. Over the last three days a Komnas HAM team led by commission member Nelson Simanjutak has been investigating human rights violations in the Lampung elections. They have already questioned members of the KPU and the Lampung provincial Panwaslu.

[Translated by James Balowski.]