Increase in House seats unlikely<\/p>\n
Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
A group of legislators gave up in their effort to amend the
\nelection law that would enable an increase in the number of House
\nof Representatives (DPR) seats from 550 to 556 due to time
\nconstraints.<\/p>\n
The 28 lawmakers, who represent various factions, had expected
\nthe revision of Law No.12\/2003 could be made before the House
\ngoes on recess this Saturday.<\/p>\n
"I don't think we will make it because there is no time left,"
\nsaid Ferry Mursyidan Baldan, one of the legislators proposing the
\nrevision, on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Ferry of the Golkar Party faction denied allegations that the
\nproposal was meant to benefit his party.<\/p>\n
A review was proposed on Article 47 on the number of House
\nseats and the explanatory addendum to Article 48, paragraph 1 (b)
\non allocation of House seats for the provinces of Maluku, North
\nSulawesi and Papua.<\/p>\n
Protests from the provinces were directed at the General
\nElections Commission (KPU) over what they called an unfair
\nallocation of House seats, because based on the existing law they
\nwould have to share the seat allocation with provinces that had
\nalready separated from them: West Irian Jaya, North Maluku and
\nGorontalo respectively.<\/p>\n
KPU required that any revisions made had to be done by Dec.
\n22, otherwise it would affect the KPU's preparations for the
\nelections.<\/p>\n
KPU has identified the period between Dec. 22 and Dec. 29 as
\nthe time for political parties to submit the names of their
\nlegislative candidates. The commission began on Dec. 9 the
\ndistribution of registration forms for legislative candidates.<\/p>\n
Lukman Hakim Saifuddin of the United Development Party (PPP)
\nfaction concurred with Ferry, saying there was not enough time to
\nmake the revisions.<\/p>\n
However, he disagreed in principle with the proposed changes,
\narguing that it could affect other issues.<\/p>\n
"There is no guarantee that the legislators will only revise
\nthe number of the House seats. I am afraid the legislators will
\nalso try to amend other things," he said.<\/p>\n
Lukman added that if legislators also started tampering with
\nother items in the law, it would throw off the schedule for the
\nelections. The nation will go to the polls on April 5 for the
\nlegislative election and the first round of the direct
\npresidential election will be on July 5. The second round of the
\npresidential election, if necessary, will be on Sept. 20.<\/p>\n
To make the revisions, the House would have needed the
\nthoughts of the executive branch of government and this was
\ndeemed to be far too time consuming.<\/p>",
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