CETRO warns of messy election preparations<\/p>\n
Arya Abhiseka, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO) warned on Saturday
\nthat scheduling next year's election for an earlier date had
\nundermined preparation efforts and could jeopardize the quality
\nof the election.<\/p>\n
CETRO executive director Hadar Gumay criticized the General
\nElections Commission's (KPU) decision to move the election date
\nfrom June 2004 to April 5, 2004.<\/p>\n
The move, he said, would shorten the time for political
\nparties to identify strong candidates after the registration
\nperiod expired this December.<\/p>\n
"A number of elements of the election are becoming
\nquestionable and could make for a lack of quality as a result of
\nKPU's shorter preparation time," Hadar said on Saturday.<\/p>\n
Among the shortcomings already felt, he said, was the massive
\ntask of voter registration, characterized by shortages of
\nregistration forms in several provinces and registration
\ndifficulties due to ill-trained officers.<\/p>\n
The country will hold its first ever direct presidential
\nelection following the amendment to the 1945 Constitution last
\nyear.<\/p>\n
The KPU is in charge of organizing the general elections which
\ncould see as many as 130 million voters participating. It
\ninitially set a June election date, expecting the presidential
\nand legislative elections be held simultaneously.<\/p>\n
This scenario would leave enough time for a separate election
\nof the regional legislatures, and if necessary, for a second-
\nround of presidential voting, if no clear-cut winner comes out of
\nthe first round.<\/p>\n
However, under the new election law, the presidential election
\nwill be held after the combined election of the national and
\nregional legislative elections.<\/p>\n
The drawback is that it could require three consecutive
\nelections.<\/p>\n
There is a fear that the nation could be left leaderless for a
\ntime since President Megawati Soekarnoputri's presidency cannot
\nlegally go beyond October 2004, and with the massive logistics
\njob of running and tabulating three sets of elections with 130
\nmillion voters in a matter of months, the KPU decided to change
\nthe election date to April 2004 from June 2004.<\/p>\n
Consequently, preparations will be shortened by two months.<\/p>\n
CETRO's Hadar said it would be better to extend Megawati's
\npresidency than to jeopardize the quality of the election results
\nby trying to rush everything.<\/p>\n
He said that political parties also would have less than four
\nmonths, from the completion of the registration process in
\nDecember until the legislative election on April 5, to select
\ntheir candidates and do all their campaigning.<\/p>\n
During that period, parties must have a complete list of
\ncandidates for the House of Representatives (DPR), each
\nprovincial council, regency council and city council.<\/p>\n
"Four months is a short period to determine the quality of the
\nlegislative candidates," said Hadar.<\/p>\n
He also pointed to problems faced by the tight deadline under
\nwhich KPU must establish some 400 offices across provinces,
\nregencies and cities. All of the KPU regional offices must become
\nfully operational by the end of May 2003.<\/p>\n
"There have been reports from our people in the regions that
\nthose who work at the regional KPU offices are doing it just for
\nthe sake of having a job," he said.<\/p>\n
He also questioned the quality of nominees who would sit on
\nthe general election's supervisory committee.<\/p>\n
KPU member Hamid Awaluddin said the preparation period could
\nbe extended if need be.<\/p>\n
On the supervisory committee, Hamid said that KPU could also
\nmake stricter requirements for selection or add more candidates
\nto its list.<\/p>\n
"We will decide in our plenary meeting on Monday to discuss if
\nwe should add more candidates for the committee if the current
\ncandidates fail to meet the commission's selection criteria," he
\nsaid over the weekend.<\/p>\n
The supervisory committee is an independent body that will
\nmonitor the entire process of the general election including the
\nballot counting.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/cetro-warns-of-messy-election-preparations-1447893297",
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