Elections body membership valid until 2003: Syarwan<\/p>\n
JAKARTA (JP): The government gave its guarantee on Thursday
\nthat all 53 members of the General Elections Commission (KPU)
\nwould serve their full terms until 2003.<\/p>\n
Minister of Home Affairs Syarwan Hamid said the General
\nElection Law did not suggest that KPU members whose parties
\nfailed to win 2 percent of the House of Representatives seats
\nwould be expelled from the commission.<\/p>\n
\"The government's decision is clear. We will always abide by
\nthe laws and regulations,\" he told reporters before a meeting of
\nthe Council for the Enforcement of Security and Law (DPKSH) at
\nthe Bina Graha presidential office on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\"As long as there is no change in the law, everything will
\nremain the same,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Syarwan was commenting on a dispute in the KPU, which surfaced
\nafter two government representatives in the commission, Adnan
\nBuyung Nasution and Andi A. Mallarangeng, said representatives of
\nminor parties should not retain their membership in the
\ncommission.<\/p>\n
\"Adnan Buyung Nasution and Andi Mallarangeng spoke as
\nindividuals, not in their capacity as government officials,\"
\nSyarwan said.<\/p>\n
Nasution and Mallarangeng were boycotted by other KPU members
\nin Wednesday's plenary session following their remarks. The angry
\ncommission members also demanded that their two colleagues, who
\nrefused to apologize for their statements, resign.<\/p>\n
The 1999 General Election Law stipulates that membership in
\nthe commission is valid for a four-year period. KPU consists of
\nrepresentatives of 48 parties contesting the June elections plus
\nfive government appointees.<\/p>\n
Syarwan, however, reiterated that parties unable to meet the
\nminimum requirement of House seats would be barred from the next
\nelections.<\/p>\n
A total of 462 House seats were up for grabs in the June 7
\npolls, with the remaining 38 reserved for the Indonesian Military
\nand police, whose members do not vote.<\/p>\n
Many parties have protested the ruling on minimum seat
\nearnings and threatened to reject the polls unless the regulation
\nis lifted.<\/p>\n
Syarwan said any plan to change the law should be addressed to
\nthe next House.<\/p>\n
\"The government cannot give any commitment about the changes
\nat all,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Settlement<\/p>\n
The internal dispute within the KPU was settled on Thursday
\nafter the warring camps agreed to withdraw their previous
\nstatements that were considered insulting.<\/p>\n
KPU chairman Rudini told reporters after chairing a meeting to
\nbreak the ice that the dispute stemmed from a misunderstanding
\nbetween the two factions.<\/p>\n
\"Everything is clear now. There are no more problems
\nconcerning the statement of Adnan Buyung Nasution and Andi
\nMallarangeng,\" Rudini said in a media conference at the KPU
\nsecretariat.<\/p>\n
He said both camps had agreed to stop making accusations at
\neach other.<\/p>\n
\"There are no more allegations that the tiny parties have held
\nup the start of the national vote count. Neither are there
\ndemands for Bang Buyung and Saudara Mallarangeng to be thrown out
\nof the commission,\" Rudini said.<\/p>\n
He accused the media of fanning the quarrel by misquoting his
\nearlier statement to suggest that political parties failing to
\ngain the minimum number of House seats would no longer be allowed
\nto sit in the commission.<\/p>\n
\"What I really said was that I was ready to quit from the KPU
\nif my party, the MKGR Party, fails to meet the requirement,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
Vote-counting slowed further on Thursday, with less than one
\nmillion votes added during the day to bring the total votes
\ncounted by 7.30 p.m. to just over 62 million, or 52 percent of
\nregistered voters.<\/p>\n
PDI-Perjuangan still leads with 36 percent of the vote,
\nfollowed by Golkar with 18.6 percent and PKB with 17.7 percent.
\nPPP and PAN collected 9.8 and 6.8 percent respectively.<\/p>\n
With the latest count, Golkar and PKB secured one more DPR
\nseat each on Thursday. Golkar's seat came from South Sulawesi
\nwhile PKB's was in West Java.<\/p>\n
PDI-Perjuangan is ahead nationwide with 65 DPR seats in its
\nhands, Golkar and PKB are neck-and-neck with 31 a piece, PPP is
\nthird with 14 seats, PAN has nine and PBB one seat.<\/p>\n
By Thursday, 152 of the 462 contested DPR seats in the 27
\nprovinces had been distributed, on the basis of having met the
\nminimum number of votes necessary to obtain a seat in each
\nprovince. (imn\/prb\/emb)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/elections-body-membership-valid-until-2003-syarwan-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}