Commission fails to decide on legislative seats
Commission fails to decide on legislative seats
JAKARTA (JP): The General Elections Commission (KPU) failed to
reach a decision on Monday on the allocation of legislative seats
due to 11 newly established regencies.
"We have to count again," commission chairman Rudini said
after a one-hour meeting at the KPU office in Central Jakarta.
Last week the 53 members of the commission began to determine
the distribution of legislative seats for the 316 regencies
across the country, based on the ratio of number of seats and a
regency's population as stipulated in the law on elections.
Rudini said last week the 11 new regencies approved by the
House of Representatives last month would not be included in the
upcoming election, saying they would not be prepared for the June
poll.
On Monday, however, the director general for general
administration and regional autonomy, Ryaas Rasyid, said the new
regencies had to be included in the election, bringing the total
number of regencies to 327.
The law on elections stipulates that the KPU is responsible
for determining the number of seats in the legislature for each
regency.
"The Ministry of Home Affairs will give details on Tuesday
about the population of each regency and district to provide us
accurate information and help us avoid miscounting in our
allocation of legislative seats," Rudini said.
The commission had based its earlier calculations on data
provided by the ministry for the 316 regencies.
Among the new mayoralties and regencies are the Cilegon and
Depok mayoralties in West Java and the Singkil and North Luwu
regencies in Aceh.
The commission also had a heated debate on whether to allocate
13 legislative seats for East Timor's 13 regencies. The
population of East Timor is some 800,000 people. The elections
law states that each regency is entitled to one seat.
"Some KPU members said it was unfair for East Timor to have
such a large amount of representatives... compared to other
densely populated provinces," Rudini said.
Ryaas explained that in the past East Timor, because of its
relatively small regencies, was only represented by four seats.
Despite a direct ballot scheduled for July to determine
whether East Timor will remain a part of Indonesia, Ryaas
reiterated that the province would participate in the election.
Rudini also said the KPU was awaiting a presidential decision
on whether to allow members of the National Police -- which was
separated from the Armed Forces on Thursday -- to participate in
the June 7 poll.
"We have to check on the status of the police after their
separation from the Armed Forces. If they are categorized as
civil servants, they may join the balloting."
"But if they are still considered as members of the
military... they cannot join the poll," Rudini said.
There are some 200,000 police officers in the country.
The commission also voted on whether to use transparent or
wooden ballot boxes in the election.
Germany has offered a donation of 10,000 transparent ballot
boxes. At least 753,000 ballot boxes will be needed for 251,000
polling booths across the country.
The results of the vote were not available. Rudini said the
commission had decided on the colors of the ballot boxes: white
for House of Representative members, pink for provincial
legislators and dark gray for regency legislators.
Rudini also disclosed that the printing of ballot sheets would
begin on Wednesday.
"We will use additional printing companies if the nine
companies licensed by the State Intelligence Coordinating Agency
fail to print the sheets on time."
The printing companies will be supervised by the KPU and the
police.
For the general election, 400 million ballot sheets will be
needed for the three electoral levels, or roughly 133 million
ballot sheets each for the central, provincial and district
levels.
Separately in Yogyakarta, Central Java, KPU member Adi Andojo
Sutjipto reiterated that every case of poll fraud must be brought
to court. "This is important to teach people to abide by the
law." (edt/44)