Election commission likely to miss election schedules

Election commission likely to miss election schedules

Tiarma Siboro, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The delay in the deliberation of political bills will likely
force the country's General Elections Commission (KPU) to change
the schedule of the 2004 elections.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said on Monday that the
Commission had earlier scheduled the legislative body election in
June and the presidential and vice presidential election in
August.

"Based on our state guidelines, the country holds general
elections every five years. It also says that the president is
elected or reelected every five years. This means the tenure of
our incumbent president will end in October 2004.

"But as of today, we (the KPU) have yet to make a clear time
frame, including the schedule to screen political parties
eligible to contest in the elections, campaign schedules for each
political party, and the schedule for the presidential election,"
said Ramlan, calling on legislators to speed up the deliberations
of political bills already submitted by the government.

Legislators endorsed in November the political party bill, but
President Megawati Soekarnoputri has yet to sign it into law.

A bill on general elections is being deliberated by House
members who promised to endorse it in March. Two other bills --
on the composition of the People's Consultative Assembly (MPR),
the House of Representatives (DPR), the Regional Representative
Council (DPD), and the Provincial and Regional Legislative
Councils (DPRD), and on the presidential and vice presidential
elections -- have yet to be submitted to the House.

Ramlan said KPU has not been able to establish local election
commissions up to now, as the bill on general elections has not
been endorsed.

On Monday, KPU also said it needed a longer period to register
voters in 2003, considering that the country did not have an
adequate database on the population regarding suffrage, even
though the country has already held eight general elections.

Ramli said KPU would cooperate with the Central Bureau of
Statistics (BPS) in registering voters.

A similar complaint was voiced by another KPU member, Anas
Urbaningrum, who is in charge of the KPU Working Committee on
presidential and vice presidential elections.

Anas said the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights had yet to
complete the verification process for the more than 230 political
parties that had already registered with the ministry.

Under Article 3 of the bill on political parties, the Ministry
of Justice and Human Rights holds the authority to verify
political parties to determine whether they meet all registration
requirements.

Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno said earlier that
political parties that did not meet the necessary requirements
should cease to exist as political parties and instead, should
change their status into foundations.

However, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights has not yet
been able to verify these political parties, as president
Megawati has not enacted the political party bill as law.

KPU said Monday that it needed at least nine months to
determine whether or not certain political parties were eligible
to contest in the general elections.