Final House seat allocation set for Wednesday

JAKARTA (JP): The National Election Committee (PPI) is scheduled to announce on Wednesday the final allocation of the 500 House of Representatives seats from the results of the June 7 polls.

Committee chairman Jakob Tobing said the body missed the Aug. 28 deadline for the announcement because of technical problems such as data verification and the photocopying of printouts.

"The calculation of the seats to be apportioned was in fact quick, what became problematic were those technicalities," Tobing was quoted by Antara as saying after heading a plenary session of the committee here.

Tobing also mentioned another problem in the process, a disagreement over the calculation method between the General Elections Commission (KPU) and eight Muslim-based parties involved in a vote-sharing deal.

On Monday, however, the KPU decided to revoke the vote-sharing deal, enforcing its own calculation method.

The PPI earlier decided to pool the remainder of votes gained by the eight parties in the elections and divide them by a certain divisor. The eight parties opposed the decision, saying it was unfair and would reduce their share of seats in the House.

With their own method, which used a ranking system to allocate the seats, they would have shared 58 seats, compared to only 39 seats based on the committee's method.

Tobing said his office will write to each of the parties informing them of the number of seats they have gained and which provinces they would represent in the House.

Antara suggested that with the current calculation method, 20 of the 48 poll contestants would be represented in the House. They included the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle (PDI Perjuangan), the United Development Party (PPP), the National Awakening Party (PKB), Golkar, the National Mandate Party (PAN), and the Justice Party.

PDI Perjuangan would have 153 seats, Golkar 120, PPP 58, PKB 51, PAN 34, while the Justice Party has seven seats.

Meanwhile, the eight Muslim-based parties involved in the vote-sharing deal (known as stembus akoord), said they planned to file a lawsuit against the General Elections Commission over its decision to revoke the deal.

The eight parties included the United Development Party, the Justice Party, the Crescent Star Party (PBB), the Ummat Awakening Party (PKU), the Nahdlatul Ummat Party (PNU), Masyumi and PSII 1905.

Spokesman for the group Abdullah Hehamahua said such a vote- sharing agreement was the right of all political parties and was clearly supported by existing regulations.

"Therefore the KPU doesn't have any right or authority to hold a vote on the fate of our agreement without the permission of the parties," Abdullah told a press conference at the commission office.

"I think this is just a conspiracy ... because our loss benefited the other poll winners, namely the Indonesian Democratic Party of Struggle and the National Awakening Party," Abdullah was quoted as saying on Tuesday by private television station ANteve.

Abdullah said the lawsuits would be filed at both the state administrative court and the civil court in order to uphold the legal supremacy and the pursuit of justice.

The commission's decision, made public on Monday, inflicted huge losses on the eight Muslim-based parties and was considered to be a humiliation of the parties, Abdullah said.

KPU chairman Rudini, however, said the parties had the right to file legal suits against the commission. On the other hand, the commission also had the full authority to make that decision, he said.

"KPU has its own way to determine (what's best) in a democratic way," he said.

"That's our way to exercise democracy." (emf/edt/swe)