Legislators call on KPU members to eschew tenders<\/p>\n
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
House of Representatives legislators called on the General
\nElections Commission (KPU) to stay away from goods procurement
\ntenders and instead focus on making policies that will ensure the
\nsuccess of the 2004 polls.<\/p>\n
Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa of the Golkar faction and Tjetje
\nHidayat Padmawinata of the Indonesian National Unity (KKI)
\nfaction said all tenders should be handled by the KPU's
\nsecretariat.<\/p>\n
They said this was common practice in other state
\ninstitutions, which always leave procurement tenders to their
\nsecretariats.<\/p>\n
\"If the KPU members continue to handle tenders, they will be
\nmisusing their power,\" Agun said during a meeting between members
\nof House Commission II for legal affairs and KPU members in
\nCentral Jakarta.<\/p>\n
\"Restrict the duties of the KPU members to policy making and
\nsupervision,\" Tjetje said, reminding the KPU members of the oath
\nthey took when they were sworn in not to get personally involved
\nin any tender process.<\/p>\n
In response, KPU chairman Nazaruddin Sjamsuddin said the
\ninvolvement of KPU members in tenders was part of the KPU's
\ndirect supervision of the tender process.<\/p>\n
\"So, it is not true that we just sit in on the tender
\nprocess,\" he said.<\/p>\n
The KPU will open a number of tenders, including for
\ninformation technology infrastructure, ballot boxes, voting
\nregistration paper and ballot papers, with a total value of more
\nthan Rp 1 trillion (US$110 million).<\/p>\n
KPU has recently come under fire for sending six of its
\nmembers to the United States, Canada and several European
\ncountries to disseminate information to Indonesian voters living
\nthere.<\/p>\n
There are more than 143 million eligible voters at home, while
\nonly about two million Indonesian are expected to register as
\noverseas voters.<\/p>\n
On another subject, the dispute over the allocation of seats
\nin the House, Commission II chairman Agustin Teras Narang said
\nthe KPU should settle the matter because it was unlikely the
\nHouse would be able to amend the election law.<\/p>\n
Teras said revising the law was not feasible due to time
\nconstraints.<\/p>\n
\"We need one more meeting with the KPU to decide whether or
\nnot the planned revision can proceed,\" he said after the meeting
\nwith the KPU members.<\/p>\n
The House is in recess and will resume its sitting on Monday
\nnext week.<\/p>\n
The KPU has asked for an amendment to the election law to
\nincrease the number of House seats to 560 for the upcoming
\nlegislative election, in a bid to accommodate the interests of
\nMaluku, North Sulawesi and Papua, following regional splits
\nthere. The law stipulates the House will have 550 seats.<\/p>\n
The elections commission has cut the number of House seats on
\noffer in the three provinces in next year's legislative elections
\nas a result of the regional divisions there, in spite of a ruling
\nin the election law which bans the reduction in the number of
\nseat.<\/p>\n
Maluku, for example, will receive just three seats in the
\nHouse in 2004 compared to six in 1999, due to the creation of
\nNorth Maluku province, which will also have three House seats.<\/p>\n
This unresolved issue has prevented the KPU from announcing
\nthe final distribution of the House seats and the electoral
\ndistrict map, except for the map in Java.<\/p>",
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