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)