JAKARTA -- Upcoming elections in Indonesia will likely be messy and chaotic, with a possibility of violence if people reject the results, experts say.
Analysts speaking Wednesday at the Jakarta Foreign Correspondents Club said the April 9 elections, which include several court-ordered re-votes of local gubernatorial and regency elections that were demanded by losing candidates, are likely to be marked by confusion and possibly violence, The Jakarta Post reported.
"The Constitutional Court has to be prepared with so many petitions for a re-vote," Chusnul Mar'iyah of the University of Indonesia and a former member of the General Election Commission, told the gathering, placing blame for potential trouble on the jurists for acting outside their authority.
Jeffrey Winters, an Indonesia expert from Northwestern University in the United States, said controversy could also erupt in the aftermath of the election over voter registries, with candidates likely to claim that the voter totals were too high, the Post reported.
He reportedly told attendees that if people believe the voters' lists had been tampered with, "there will be violence."
Copyright © 2009, by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
