Civil servants' votes

Civil servants' votes

From Rakyat Merdeka

With the 2004 general election approaching and candidates for
the posts of president and vice president being proposed by
political parties and even non-governmental organizations,
political observers are still questioning the distribution of
votes to be cast by civil servants.

As members of the Civil Servants Corps (Korpri), civil
servants and their families account for 35 million votes, which
are at present neutral but can be expected later to be divided
among five major parties. These five are the Indonesian
Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the National
Mandate Party (PAN), the United Development Party (PPP), the
National Awakening Party (PKB) and the Golkar Party. The rising
Crescent Moon Party (PBB) might also expect to get some of the
votes.

Because this is the postreform era, none of the five parties
have secured a majority of the votes. So the support of Korpri
members will go to the top first to seven parties from the 1999
elections, in varying degrees. All the other parties expected to
take part in the upcoming elections will further fragment the
support of the civil servants.

However, projections on the distribution of civil servants'
votes depend on which parties can offer convincing guarantees of
improved public welfare. Provisional estimates may be that in the
2004 elections, almost half of the Korpri members will vote for
PDI Perjuangan, with 20 percent voting for Golkar, 20 percent for
PAN, 15 percent for PPP and 5 percent for PKB or PBB.

UMIYATI
Jakarta