Law revision may raise House seats<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Seats in the House of Representatives may increase to 556 from
\n550 as stipulated in Law No. 12\/2003 on elections, as lawmakers
\nwill soon amend the legislation.<\/p>\n
The decision to revise the law received full support from the
\nGeneral Elections Commission (KPU), which expects the amendment
\nto take place before Dec. 22.<\/p>\n
Deputy chairman of House Commission II for domestic and legal
\naffairs Ferry Mursyidan Baldan said after a meeting with KPU
\nmembers on Tuesday the revision would start as soon as possible
\nbecause the House would start its recess on Dec. 19.<\/p>\n
House internal rules allow a short-cut procedure to be used
\nfor a bill or on deliberations to an amendment to a law, in which
\nlegislation does not need a special committee to debate it.<\/p>\n
Ferry said the House would exercise its initiative right to
\namend the law, considering the legislation was drafted by the
\ngovernment.<\/p>\n
The planned revision will be made to Article 47 on the number
\nof House seats and to the explanatory addendum to Article 48,
\nparagraph 1 (b) on allocation of House seats to the provinces of
\nMaluku, North Sulawesi and Papua.<\/p>\n
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said following the
\namendment, Papua would have its House seats increased from the
\npresent 10 to 13, Maluku would have six from the current four and
\nNorth Sulawesi seven instead of six.<\/p>\n
Protests from the provinces were directed at the KPU over what
\nthey called an unfair allocation of House seats, because based on
\nthe existing law they would have to share the seat allocation
\nwith provinces that had already separated from them: West Irian
\nJaya, North Maluku and Gorontalo.<\/p>\n
Ramlan said the revised law should take effect by Dec. 22,
\notherwise it would affect the KPU's preparations for the
\nelection.<\/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 Tuesday the
\ndistribution of registration forms for legislative candidates.<\/p>\n
\"If the revision is not completed before Dec. 22, it will
\ndisrupt political party preparations for selection and submission
\nof their legislative candidates and the rest of the KPU
\nschedules,\" he said.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the day, the Indonesia Our Motherland Party (PITA),
\nRepublic of Indonesia Unitary Party (PKRI), Indonesian
\nNationalist Unifying Party (PPNI), Indonesian Catholic Democratic
\nParty (PKDI) and the Love Indonesian Nation Democratic Party
\n(PDKBI) filed complaints with the KPU over the latter's decision
\nto eliminate them from next year's polls.<\/p>\n
PKRI secretary-general Edison D. Haloho said he suspected that
\nirregularities in the factual screening in at least six provinces
\nhad destroyed his party's hopes of contesting the 2004 elections.<\/p>\n
\"In East Java, for example, our party was verified in four
\nregencies and municipalities, including Pacitan and Ngawi,
\nalthough we had never registered the areas with the KPU,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
The party, he added, had instead registered Pasuruan,
\nProbolinggo, and Jember for the verification, but the local
\nelections commission did not conduct the screening there.<\/p>\n
He also claimed his party had passed the factual screening in
\nPapua, but the document was not found in the KPU office.<\/p>\n
Separately, PDKBI secretary-general Anton Reinhart said his
\nparty should have passed the factual verification in 21 of 26
\nprovinces screened.<\/p>\n
\"Based on reports from our branch offices, we failed only in
\nBali, South Sulawesi, Banten, Jambi and Bangka Belitung,\" he
\nsaid. \"We need clarification from KPU on why we failed the
\nfactual screening.\"<\/p>\n
The PDKBI was mulling the filing of a lawsuit against the KPU,
\nhe said.<\/p>\n
KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin said the KPU would allow
\ndisappointed political parties to challenge the commission's
\ndecision in court.<\/p>\n
Only 24 parties finally made it to the 2004 election, while 48
\ncontested the last one in 1999.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/law-revision-may-raise-house-seats-1447893297",
"image": ""
},
"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
}