New bill tightens rules on election contestants<\/p>\n
Bambang Nurbianto, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta<\/p>\n
The country's highest electoral authority said on Thursday it
\nwould soon submit a new bill to the House of Representatives that
\nwould impose tighter requirements for those of the country's more
\nthan 300 political parties wishing to contest the general
\nelection in 2004.<\/p>\n
Mulyana W. Kusumah, a member of the General Election
\nCommission (KPU), could not say, however, when the bill would be
\nsubmitted to the House for deliberation.<\/p>\n
He said the bill would require any party contesting the
\nelection to have branches in at least two-thirds of the country's
\n32 provinces and in two-thirds of the regencies in each of the
\nprovinces in which it had a presence.<\/p>\n
\"In addition to that, each political party must be able to
\nprove that it has at least 1,000 members by showing their
\nmembership cards to the KPU,\" Mulyana, head of the commission's
\npolitical party section, told The Jakarta Post.<\/p>\n
He said that under the bill, it would not be overly easy for
\npolitical parties to meet the requirements for eligibility to
\ntake part in the 2004 elections.<\/p>\n
Under the current Law No. 2\/1999 on general elections,
\nelection contestants are obliged to have branches in only half of
\nthe total number of provinces and in half of the regencies in
\nthese provinces.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Thursday, Minister of Justice and Human Rights
\nYusril Ihza Mahendra said that some 300 new political parties,
\nbesides the 48 ones that contested the 1999 election, had
\nregistered with his office to take part in the next national
\npoll.<\/p>\n
Mulyana said that this came as no surprise because under the
\ncurrent regulations, a group of only 50 people could set up a
\npolitical party to contest an election after the relevant
\ndocuments had been formalized by a notary public.<\/p>\n
He said that in future all parties would have to pass the
\nKPU's verification process, which would determine whether they
\nwere eligible to take part the 2004 poll or not.<\/p>\n
\"It's not so easy for a new party to have branches in 22
\nprovinces, and in every province it must have branches in two-
\nthirds of the municipalities or regencies,\" Mulyana pointed out.<\/p>\n
Mulyana said the KPU wanted to be given sufficient time to
\nverify such a large number of new political parties. \"We hope
\nthat the experience of 1999, when the KPU was given only one
\nmonth to verify the political parties, will not be repeated,\" he
\nsaid.<\/p>\n
He added that ideally, the next national election would be
\ncontested by only 20 parties.<\/p>\n
Mulyana said that at least six of the 48 political parties
\ncontesting the 1999 election were expected to be eligible to take
\npart in the next poll.<\/p>\n
These parties included the Indonesian Democratic Party of
\nStruggle (PDI-P), the Golkar Party, the National Awakening Party
\n(PKB), the United Development Party (PPP), the National Mandate
\nParty (PAN), and the Crescent and Star Party (PBB), he said.<\/p>\n
Mulyana explained that the KPU's legal draftsmen had also
\ncompleted two other political bills, namely a bill on political
\nparties and a bill on the structure and status of the House of
\nRepresentatives and the People's Consultative Assembly.<\/p>\n
The bills had been forwarded to the Ministry of Home Affairs
\nfor a final check before being submitted to the House for
\ndeliberation, he added.<\/p>",
"url": "https:\/\/jawawa.id\/newsitem\/new-bill-tightens-rules-on-election-contestants-1447893297",
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