Legislators urged to simulate election<\/p>\n
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
Activists from non-governmental organizations (NGO) have urged
\nthe House of Representatives to start making practical
\npreparations for the general election to test the applicability
\nof the election bill.<\/p>\n
Adi Abidin, a senior official of The Asia Foundation said the
\npreparations could help avoid any possible errors in the 2004
\nelection.<\/p>\n
One main difficulty is implementing an article of the bill
\nwhich specifies that every political party could propose twice as
\nmany candidates as there are contested seats, he said citing
\narticle 24 of the government-proposed election bill.<\/p>\n
\"Assuming there will be 50 parties to participate at the next
\npoll. If one district, for instance East Java, has a quota of 20
\nseats, each party can propose 40 candidates. Thus, there will be
\n2,000 candidates for the entire 50 parties. Can you imagine
\nincluding all the candidates plus their photographs on a ballot
\npaper? The ballot papers would be very thick if you included all
\nof them,\" Adi told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
It would also take a long time for one voter to scrutinize the
\nballot paper before they made a choice, he said.<\/p>\n
There were 48 parties contesting the 1999 General Election and
\nmore parties are likely to join the 2004 election.<\/p>\n
Such a large number of candidates would open a way for
\npolitical parties to bribe potential legislative candidates, he
\nadded.<\/p>\n
\"That's why we need to prepare the election bill article not
\njust write it,\" he said, noting that legislators couldn't
\nbelittle any single article in the election bill. (iwa\/edt)<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/legislators-urged-to-simulate-election-1447893297",
"image": ""
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"sponsor": "Okusi Associates",
"sponsor_url": "https:\/\/okusiassociates.com"
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