Police Thwart Attempted Burning Of Southeast Maluku KPU Office

Maluku Police Chief Inspector General Lotharia Latif when interviewed in Ambon. (ANTARA/Winda Herman)

AMBON - Police Resort (Polres) Southeast Maluku (Mallra) and the Maluku Police Mobile Brigade Unit thwarted the attempted burning of the Southeast Maluku Regency KPU (Malla) office.

Maluku Police Chief Inspector General Lotharia Latif said this was tried by an unknown person (OTK) who had tried to burn the room behind the Malra KPU office on Tuesday (12/3) afternoon.

"Luckily, the action was quickly discovered by the police who were currently carrying out security. The personnel of the Malra Police and the Maluku Police Mobile Brigade then acted by immediately extinguishing the fire using fire extinguishers and water," Lotharia said, in Ambon as reported by ANTARA, Wednesday, March 13.

Although it was successfully extinguished, the fire had caused the printers, chairs, air conditioning and ceilings in the room to catch fire.

The trial of burning the Malra KPU office began with a demonstration carried out by a mass group on behalf of the Southeast Maluku Democracy Defender at around 16.25 WIT.

The action was carried out at the intersection of four red lights of Ohoijang. The crowd demanded justice. They claim that there has been fraud in the number of votes in a number of butts in Langgur Village and Ohoijang Village, Watdek, Southeast Maluku.

Not long ago, the mass of the action that carried out the oration began to be anarchic. They carried sharp weapons (bars) and threatened to burn down the kpu office. Several masses of action were seen starting to climb the back wall of the kpu office, and immediately set fire to one of the rooms.

Lotharia said he had explicitly ordered the Malra Police Chief to immediately make a Police Report (LP) and process the law of anyone involved.

"I deeply regret the incident and have ordered to create an LP and process anyone involved in the case," he asserted.

The Kapolda revealed that there are indications that cases of dissatisfaction with the vote count results of the provincial, district and city DPRDs have increased, especially within the internal party itself.

According to him, the problem should be resolved in party channels or through a lawsuit against the organizers if there are allegations of violating the rules.

"It should be resolved through a lawsuit or on the party path according to the mechanism of each party, not by anarchic means that harms the general public," he said.