Flaws found in electoral districts map
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.