Govt to stand by result of party screening<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan and Muninggar Sri Saraswati, The Jakarta Post,
\nJakarta<\/p>\n
The government will not accede to requests from parties that did
\nnot qualify as political groupings to reverse the screening
\nresults, an official said Sunday.<\/p>\n
Zulkarnaen Yusuf, the director general of legal administration
\nat the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights, said that most, if
\nnot all, of the 34 parties that did not pass the third and last
\nscreening did not have required number of branch offices in
\nprovinces and regencies.<\/p>\n
In some cases, parties had no offices, while verification
\nofficials from the ministry also discovered several cases of
\ndouble leadership, he said.<\/p>\n
\"We will show the 34 parties that they failed to meet the
\nrequirements as political parties,\" Zulkarnaen told The Jakarta
\nPost on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Justice and Human Rights Ministry announced on Saturday
\nthat only 32 out of 66 parties screened in the third and last
\nphase met the requirements for registration as political parties.<\/p>\n
Under the prevailing law, a party has to have branch offices
\nin 50 percent of provinces, 50 percent of the
\nregencies\/municipalities in those provinces, and 25 percent of
\nthe total subdistricts in those regencies.<\/p>\n
Indonesia has 32 provinces and 416 regencies\/municipalities.<\/p>\n
With the last 32 parties passing the ministry's screening, a
\ntotal of 50 parties are entitled to register with the National
\nElections Commission (KPU) to be screened as contestants for the
\n2004 elections. Nine of them have already registered with the
\nKPU.<\/p>\n
At least three of the 34 parties that failed the screening are
\nto hand over the necessary evidence to the ministry to prove that
\nthey should qualify.<\/p>\n
\"We are going to hear the ministry's explanation on Monday as
\nto why we failed to pass the screening. We will provide the
\nministry with proof that we should have passed the screening,\"
\nsaid Bambang Sulistomo, chairman of the Indonesian Nationalist
\nAlliance Party.<\/p>\n
According to Bambang, his party would still demand that the
\ngovernment revise the outcome of the screening if his party could
\nprove that the ministry had made mistakes in the screening
\nprocess.<\/p>\n
He said his party had branch offices in 21 provinces, thus
\npassing the requirement set by the law.<\/p>\n
Bambang said he was not going to sue the ministry as this
\nwould take too long whereas a party had to register with the KPU
\non Oct. 9 at the latest to be included in the verification
\nprocess as a contestant in the 2004 election.<\/p>\n
The Reform Mandate Party and the United People's Opposition
\nParty (POPOR) also claimed they should have passed the
\nverification stage as they had fulfilled all the requirements for
\nrecognition as a political party.<\/p>\n
M. Dulwatin, the president of the Reform Mandate Party, said
\nhis party should have qualified as it had branch offices in 24
\nprovinces.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, the ministry had not yet checked all the
\nprovinces, according to Dulwatin.<\/p>\n
Dulwatin also questioned Yusril's advice to disappointed
\nparties to challenge his ministry's decision in court.<\/p>\n
\"We are not afraid, but we might run out of time as court
\nproceedings can take years,\" he said.<\/p>\n
POPOR secretary-general Yusuf Lakaseng said his party would
\nmeet with ministry officials on Monday to question them about the
\nministry's decision that his party had failed the screening.<\/p>\n
He argued that his party, which had 18 branch offices, should
\nhave qualified, saying that the ministry had undertaken unfair
\npractices in verifying his party.<\/p>\n
For example, he said, hoodlums in Banten had intimidated his
\nparty officials in the new province not to reveal themselves as
\nPOPOR officials. Thus, the ministry officials had not been able
\nto properly verify his party there.<\/p>\n
In other areas, the ministry's officials came earlier than
\nthey had promised, so that not all of his party officials
\nhad met with the verification officials.<\/p>\n
\"So there have been systematic attempts to stop our party from
\ncontesting the 2004 elections. We will not beg the ministry to
\nallow us to compete in next year's election,\" he said.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/govt-to-stand-by-result-of-party-screening-1447893297",
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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