Flaws found in electoral districts map
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Several mistakes and weaknesses have been discovered in the electoral district zones announced by the General Elections Commission (KPU), which has caused some districts to receive less or more legislators than stipulated by the regulations.
KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti admitted on Monday that the errors had resulted in 10 electoral districts losing one of 100 provincial legislative seats up for grabs in next year's general election.
He also said it had mistakenly allotted electoral districts in West Irian Jaya with 35 provincial legislative seats instead of 44 according to the special autonomy law for Papua.
Under special autonomy, which will apply to all provinces across Papua, the would-be West Irian Jaya province deserves 25 percent more seats from the estimated number of seats up for grabs in the new province, which will be inaugurated soon.
The Jakarta Post on Sunday also discovered mistakes on the map of seven electoral districts in Aceh, which have been allotted a total of 70 provincial legislative seats, one more than the KPU has decided.
Other mistakes include the division of East Aceh regency into two electoral districts, and a typewriting error in the number of provincial legislative seats in South Sumatra, which was written as 55 instead of 65.
South Sulawesi provincial KPU chairman Aidir Amin Daud said late last week that people in several regencies in the province would file objections with the KPU over its decision to merge their regencies into two electoral districts.
Luwu, Mamasa and Tana Toraja regencies and Palopo municipality have been unified into one electoral district, while East Luwu, North Luwu, Mamuju and North Mamuju regencies have been merged into another electoral district.
According to Aidir, Palopo, Luwu, Tana Toraja, East Luwu and North Luwu deserved the status as one electoral district each because people there had persistently demanded the establishment of a separate province of Luwu Raya, which would cover the administrative areas.
Mamasa, Mamuju, North Mamuju, Pole Wali Mamasa, and Majene also rejected the merger as they had proposed the creation of the West Sulawesi province.
"This map will trigger problem in my province," Aidir said.
KPU revealed the map of electoral districts for regional KPUs to implement and is expecting feedback from the public within the coming two weeks.
The commission has divided the country into 200 electoral districts for the election of provincial legislative members and 1,565 electoral districts for the election of the legislative members in regencies/municipalities.
The KPU has also decided 69 electoral districts for the election of 550 House of Representatives members, pending a possible revision of the election law.
The KPU has demanded the House revise the law by increasing the House seats to a maximum of 560 to accommodate demands from three new provinces in Maluku, Papua and North Sulawesi.
Maluku has demanded six House seats as allocated by the KPU in the 1999 general election, instead of three at present, Papua asked for 13 instead of 10, and North Sulawesi seven instead of six.
The election law says a province cannot have its House seats allocation reduced for any reasons.
Earlier, the National Mandate Party (PAN) presented its version of the electoral district map to the KPU, which included a proposal to combine several regencies into one electoral district.
Meanwhile, 14 small political parties grouped under the National Unity Front demanded on Monday that the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights delay the closing of its verification period to Oct. 27 and the KPU extend its deadline for party registration to Nov. 27.
KPU member Mulyana W. Kusumah, who received the delegates, said the commission would stick to the original deadline of Oct. 9, for fear that any change to the schedule would disrupt its work.