Final House seat allocation set for Wednesday

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)