Gang of strange attackers hit Monopoly Watch office

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

A group calling itself the election support committee attacked on Thursday the office of Monopoly Watch following the latter's criticism of the General Elections Commission (KPU) for its procurement tender process.

A press release from Monopoly Watch said the group, consisting of between 10 to 15 people, came to its office twice on Thursday to look for chairman Samuel Nitisaputra.

The group demanded that the non-governmental organization (NGO) retract its criticism of the tender process, and quit commenting on election preparations.

When the group came earlier in the day, it insisted upon entering the NGO's office despite the fact that Samuel was not in.

Failing to find Samuel, members were angered so they attempted to smash up windows.

At around 4 p.m., the small gang returned, but this time they hurled an array of stones at Monopoly Watch's office and managed to break some windows.

Then they hightailed it away in public buses after their ammunition of stones began to wane, but not before they threatened to return again.

The NGO, which is committed to fighting certain forms of corruption and collusion in the interests of consumers, has been calling on the KPU to be open and honest in holding its tender for the provision of ballot boxes, following the participation of the Maspion Group that controls 70 percent of the aluminum production market in the country.

In a separate development, the KPU decided on Thursday to allow political parties to appoint substitutes of recalled legislators until next year as stated by law No. 4/1999 on the composition of legislative bodies.

KPU deputy chairman Ramlan Surbakti said that under the new law, recalled legislators were supposed to be replaced by the party's candidates that had the next ranking below in terms of votes garnered and must, of course, be from the same electoral district.

But this article could not be implemented as seats in the House of Representatives were occupied by legislators appointed by their political parties regardless of the number of votes they got in 1999 election.

Thus, KPU would leave the matter to political parties until next year when people will select new legislators through the election, he said.

"The party will just have to appoint the substitutes from the same electoral districts with the recalled legislators. The party will then report this recall to the House, and the House will hand in the name of substitute to us. We will then verify them and return it to the House. At the end, the House will give its report to the President for approval," he said.

The Minister of Home Affairs Hari Sabarno and governors will become the final destination to sign the substitutes of recalled legislators at the province, regency or municipality levels respectively.

This legislator recall procedure will be adopted in the commission's instruction that would be signed soon, according to Hari.

This planned instruction will surely pave the way for a number of parties to drop legislators that they do not like any longer.

Besides the recall procedures, Ramlan also said the KPU had dropped its plan to propose a revision to the 550 House seats article of law No. 12/2003 on general elections.

"The election law amendment is out of question now. We think the House will have no more time to talk about that revision. We will decide the seat allocation with our own regulation," he said.

Ramlan had earlier said that Maluku would be allotted four seats in the 2004 House instead of the initial three seats.

One seat would be taken from West Nusa Tenggara (NTB), thus NTB would get 10 seats instead of 11, he added.

However, 10 seats for NTB in next year's election was still an increase from nine seats in the 1999 election, Ramlan said.