Each province to receive four seats in DPD

Each province to receive four seats in DPD

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

All nine factions in the House of Representatives (DPR) have
agreed that each province would have four representatives in the
Regional Representatives Council (DPD), a legislative body
mandated by the newly adopted for a bicameral system.

Legislators from nine factions and Home Affairs Minister Hari
Sabarno reached the agreement in a meeting on Saturday night. The
meeting was organized to speed up finalization of the much-
awaited electoral bill.

DPD members, and DPR members will make up the People's
Consultative Assembly (MPR), the highest legislative body.

The factions, however, were still debating whether the number
of DPR members should be 550 or 600.

Several items in the bill, however, remained unsettled and
would likely be put to a vote at a plenary meeting scheduled for
Tuesday.

"There is a possibility that the unsolved items will be voted
on at the plenary session," said Samuel Koto of the Reform
faction on the sidelines of the meeting here on Sunday.

The House special committee deliberating the bill will have
another hearing with Minister Hari Sabarno on Monday before the
final meeting on Tuesday.

Among the unsolved items are the requirements for small
political parties to qualify for the 2004 elections, the number
of seats in the DPR, the restriction for state officials to
actively campaign, voting procedures and the division of each
constituency.

Golkar Party insists upon using each regency and mayoralty to
as the constituencies, while other parties wanted it to be broken
down by province or parts of the province.

"We have to ensure that all regencies have representation in
the House," said Agun Gunandjar Sudarsa of Golkar.

But Effendi Choirie of the National Awakening Party (PKB) said
that regencies would have enough representation with the
establishment of the DPD, therefore, the constituency should not
be delineated by regency but by province.

Legislators and the home minister emphasized that their
agreement on the number of DPD members was chosen to fit with the
amended Constitution which stipulates that the number of DPD
members must not exceed one-third of the number of DPR members.

Article 22 (C) of the 1945 Constitution stipulates that
members of DPD from each province are equal and the total number
of DPD members should not exceed the number of DPR members.

Previously, the United Development Party (PPP) insisted that
the number of representatives from each province should be five
persons to ensure more representation.

"But we agree with the decision particularly to give room for
representatives from new provinces should there be more
formations of provinces," said PPP spokesman Chozin Chumaidy here
on Sunday.

Despite the establishment of some new provinces, the meeting
assumed that the number of provinces would stay at 30 for the
time being. Given that assumption, the total number of DPD
members would be 120. Since the number of DPR members will vary
between 550 to 600, the number of DPD members will be below the
limit.

Additional requirements for DPD candidates

Article 63: (a) Candidates must reside in the area they will
represent for at least the last three years, or have resided in the
province for a total of 10 years after their 17th birthday. (b)
Candidates must not have been an executive member of any political
party in the last four years.

Article 64: Candidates from the civil service, military or
police force must resign those posts if elected to the DPD.