Electoral district to have between six to 12 seats

Electoral district to have between six to 12 seats

Kurniawan Hari, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The General Elections Commission (KPU) decided on Tuesday that an
electoral district for the regional legislative councils (DPRDs)
in regencies and provinces would have on average six to 12 seats.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti told reporters the
districting decision would be applied in a flexible manner, given
the fact that the country's population was not evenly
distributed.

In a less populated area, each seat would represent 325,000
people while in a densely populated area one seat would represent
425,000 people, Ramlan said.

Based on this, some administrative areas would have to merge
to form an electoral district to meet the minimum requirements of
the population of 1,950,000.

Ramlan acknowledged that the new system would certainly spark
confusion among people as not all of the district administrations
would have representatives in the legislature.

"This will be the duty of KPU to explain to people at the
grassroots level that an electoral district does not represent an
administrative entity," Ramlan said after a KPU meeting.

In the past, an electoral district was associated with an
administrative entity of regency or district.

The elections law stipulates that each electoral district will
have an allocation of between three and 12 seats, with an
electoral district covering a regency or a district or a merger
of regencies or districts.

Deputy director of the Center for Electoral Reform (CETRO)
Hadar N. Gumay hailed the KPU decision, saying it would improve
the quality of representation of the elected legislative members.

Hadar suggested that if possible the allocation of seats be
pushed to 12 seats for every electoral district.

"The more the number of seats in every electoral district, the
bigger the opportunity for people's representation and in
particular women's representation," Hadar told The Jakarta Post.

He added that the decision would also give more room to small
or newly-formed political parties to contest seats at regional
level.

Ramlan said the districting decision would also reduce the
number of electoral districts compared to that in the past,
therefore lightening the work of the KPU, especially in the
distribution of ballot papers.

He said the KPU had decided not to strictly follow the
elections law regarding the districting for fear that it would
spark problems in the field.

The KPU had earlier categorized electoral districts into three
groups: Small electoral districts that will have between three to
five seats, middle electoral districts with six to eight seats,
and big electoral districts with nine to 12 seats.

The KPU will regroup on Wednesday to decide on electoral
districts in the election of House of Representatives
legislators.